


Eyes on the Ball

by Genna-Red (Genna_Bella)



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game), Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Barbarian David King, Bard Kate Denson, Cleric Adam Francis, Dragonborn Adam Francis, Druid Claudette Morel, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, F/M, Fighter Jeffrey "Jeff" Johansen, Fighter Meg Thomas, Flirting, Gen, Half-elf Ace Visconti, Half-elf Kate Denson, Half-orc Meg Thomas, High-elf Dwight Fairfield, High-elf Jane Romero, Human Jake Park, Human Jeffrey "Jeff" Johansen, Human Nea Karlsson, M/M, Nudity, Paladin Jake Park, Period Typical Attitudes, Platonic Relationships, Ranger Feng Min, Rogue Ace Visconti, Rogue Nea Karlsson, Sorcerer Jane Romero, Tiefling David King, Tonal Shifts-whoops, Warlock Dwight Fairfield, Wood-elf Claudette Morel, Wood-elf Feng Min, non-sexual nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2020-12-31 21:41:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genna_Bella/pseuds/Genna-Red
Summary: Dwight Fairfield brought distress to his family's reputation when he found out he was the only elf in his small town incapable of magic.Life was a dead end for him after that, doors were closing and his allies were waning.Until one day a stranger offered him a ticket out of his father's barren apothecary shop, a ticket out of his dead old town.A ticket in the form of a mysterious patron known asThe Entity. A spiderlike being who grants powers to those unfortunate enough to need them.Needless to say when Dwight accepted his life changed dramatically.Now he was on a quest with a snarky human paladin, a half-orc with no filter, as well as a shapeshifting cat.And he couldn't be happier.





	1. Ondskab (Part 1)

“Hands on your wallets, ‘kay?” Jake instructs, walking through the dirty streets of Ondskab. I felt kinda bad for him in the sense his armour was so easily identifiable as that of a paladin’s. So white and shiny with blue and golden trim.

I can’t say I feel too much pity though as I hear the sound of my own cloak pull back on my mantle with the resistance of friction, but at least my cloak was dark blue and easy to wash.

“Watch your six too.” Meg mutters, looking to her left periodically into the windows of tall houses we pass by.

Ondskab was poor, but the homeless were hidden away in the alleys and alcoves. However, I’d always heard to be homeless in Ondskab was quite the achievement. It meant no one that owned these three story houses containing four to six people on each floor wanted to take you in, that’s a pretty impressive feat to me.

“Yeah, Claudette can you let me know if you see anything over my shoulder?” I whisper to my cat, scratching her behind the ear as I held her tight.

She purrs, stretching her arms to be lifted into the hood of my cloak behind me. I do what she wants, placing her behind me into my hood and feeling her adjust her position to watch behind us.

A few minutes of silence pass as my eyes warily dart around the shadows to catch the figures I see for only moments. This place was unsafe, that much was guaranteed.

“Do you think there are any little old ladies living here?” Meg asks out of the blue, catching me out of my trance.

“What makes you ask that?” I chuckle, having the mental image of a swashbuckling old crone beating the neighbourhood kids for being on her lawn, when she would consider the entire building and the two next to them as her own land.

“I could just see a cooling blue-berry pie on one of those windowsills, or someone shaking out a rug.” She looks up and around, one of her ginger braids getting caught between the great-sword on her back and the sheath in which it rests as her neck cranes vertical.

I wanted to fix it for her, but I’d run the risk of upsetting Claude’s position.

“Maybe an array of pretty flowers in pots?” Jake throws in with a smirk. “They’d make decent weapons if you were to throw them off the top story.”

“Always one to ruin it.” I say sarcastically, seeing him shake his head in response.

Another few moments of silence pass before anyone says anything, still watching the surroundings, studying them in wait for something to go wrong.

“Does anyone even know where we’re going?” Meg finally asks, trying to pick apart her braid and her sheath. “I mean, we know why we’re here and all, but where are we gonna start?”

“Start—?” I coerce her to say more.

“Looking for the thing?” She replies in raising pitch.

I feel the weight in the back of my hood suddenly pool out onto the floor, turning around in a hurry reveals Claudette was okay.

I take a deep breath with a light laugh, “you scared me there, Claude. At least gimme a warning or something!”

She looks up at me with innocent chocolate brown eyes, as if to apologise before skipping off in front of Jake.

Jake picks up his pace to follow her, forcing Meg and I to do the same.

I feel so weird gathering my cloak like this, having the ends of it brush the floor was normal, but it was so windy on the planes and the other cities were never this dirty.

I hasten my speed, pulling my hood over my head with one hand and adjusting my glasses in the other. Surprisingly there wasn’t much cat hair, but that really shouldn’t be something I’m happy about.

My cloak falls over my leather tunic and the fabric around the pin on my right side bleeding into a dark red.

“What’re you doing, Fairfield?” Meg puts her arm in my way, stopping me in my tracks.

“I just think it’d be beneficial to have someone monitoring us from, above. Or something.” I shrug, the red receding back into the pin as soon as it appeared in the first place. I still keep my hood in its place, covering my body with the cloth.

“I agree with you, but we can’t run the risk of showing anyone in these alleys what’s up, y’know?” Jake sighs, his voice a little lower than before.

“I don’t wanna argue, but I don’t think anything would’ve come from a little light magic.” I scratch my head, still watching Claudette as she rounds a corner.

When we do the same there was a sight to behold.

A large gathering of nearly sixty odd people watching a single event, with Claudette darting in between the legs of men, women and children.

They were all reasonably quiet save a few quiet conversations, instead of focusing on anything else I start following my cat.

I elbow my way through the crowd, apologizing every other second to the masses. I feel some of the children tug at my cape, lucky they all had butter fingers or Claudette would’ve disappeared my line of sight by now.

I hear Jake and Meg run after me calling after both me and Claude.

I tumble through the front of the crowd, my face meeting Claudette’s as she sits in front of me, batting my glasses with her dainty black paw.

“Fairfield!” Jake exclaims, reaching my side a second later with Meg behind him too.

Sounds of shock fill the air behind us but I’m not sure whether they were directed to me and Claudette, Jake or Meg. All of us was also a reasonable option, we weren’t normal looking in the slightest.

I look past my cat to see a low standing table with three downturned bowls and a man behind said table. He was older than the average man, if I had to say definitively, I’d call him fifty winters or so into his life. His hair was to his shoulders and greying, falling over his ears in such a way I couldn’t tell if he was an elf or not. Additionally, his teeth were a matte gold and he had tinted glasses masking his eyes, giving him a further mysterious edge to his appearance.

“I’m a firm believer in the gods, and I definitely do not believe in any coincidences.” He smirks, looking down at me as I try standing again to regain any amount of dignity. “I think we have our next competitors.”

“What? I—” I begin to stutter, scooping up my cat and huddling myself further into my cloak.

“We were just going.” Jake snarls, leaning into the table without touching it and turning on his heel again to leave.

“Are you sure you want to ignore this twist of fate?” He asks Jake and even though I had no way of seeing his eyes, I knew he was looking at his armour and weaponry.

He then gets onto his knees and addresses the crowd. “Don’t you wanna see these three travellers play my game?”

Jeers and cheers come from the crowd. A city that was before so quiet is now uproarious with the promise of entertainment.

“The prize, my friends, for winning this simple game is a single wish to be delivered by yours truly.” He cocks his head to his side stretching his arms to the side like a religious figure.

I already have one overbearing religious figure to deal with in the form of Jake, this guy seems too much.

“What’s the catch?” Meg lifts her head in a display of sizing the man up.

The smile he returns feels borderline sinister, the corners of his lips curling up to reveal the straight, yellow teeth I noticed before.

Meg looks at the man with suspicious eyes, stopping Jake from leaving with her arm.

She whispers something to him spurring him to whisper back creating a conversation I can’t quite hear, whilst I pull back my hood and fill it with the cat in my arms.

The man behind the counter takes one look at me after I take my hood off, making note of my pointed ears primarily, before tensing up noticeably for a second, reverting to the old cocky persona after a breath.

Meg taps me on the shoulder and begins whispering in my ear. “Win whatever game this is. We can ask him about the key, we get a temporary ally.”

“We can’t trust him.” I state.

“We can’t. We need a lead though.” She frowns.

“This just seems too convenient.”

“I know, just try it and if we lose, we lose.”

I nod. Her logic was sound I suppose, although I’m not backing down from my statement that all of this seems rather convenient.

“I’ll play.” I nod to the man, tapping Meg on the shoulder to send her away.

He hesitates, the darkened lenses of his glasses making it impossible to see where his eyes are truly looking.

“Of course you will!” He grins, the audience seems to be content with this development.

I sit cross legged in front of the table after a moment’s hesitation, my cloak pooling around me even when I tuck it behind my shoulders to reveal the leather tunic with blue trim lining the cords fastening the various pieces to me.

If it wasn’t clear we were travelling with money before with Jake’s blasé attitude towards disguise, the tunic holding the crest of my patron definitely gave it away.

“Before we start, can I have a single request?” He tilts his head, his palms open.

“I mean, that depends on what it is.” I give a feint and concerned laugh.

“Can you have the cat about ten meters away from you?” He asks.

I raise an eyebrow, looking over to the other two. “Odd request, but okay.” I smile, “Claudette, can you go with Thomas please?”

Claude does as she’s told, spilling out of my robes and pooling at Meg’s feet. At a glance, the mystery man seems almost impressed by our communication skills, watching the cat puddle rub against Jake’s leg making him scoop her up.

“Anyway, the rules of this game are insanely simple, even a child could win.” He looks over to the audience who laugh. “I have three bowls in front of me, and under one of them I’m gonna place an item of yours worth something to you.”

I think for a moment. That sentiment’s rather shady, even if the item only has to be worth an emotional connection. Even then I’m unsure why I’d ever fork over anything worth sentimental value to this breathing sham.

“And it can’t be the cat.” He jokes, probing me to look around at her even though I know nothing is wrong.

I pat myself down for anything of value, reaching the carved dagger on my waist. I shouldn’t hand that one over though, it’s my only means of defence outside side stepping into The Entity’s realm.

With all that being said, using indirect, utilitarian, spiderlike magics on this man doesn’t seem entirely necessary, even if he were to steal my dagger.

I place the dagger on the table anyway amidst the noises of admiration from the audience. I understand why they found it interesting with its silver blade inscribed with tangled flowers and thorns although it was nothing more than elven decoration.

“It’s a little large but it’ll do.” He shrugs thoughtfully, making exaggerated hand movements as he goes. “I’m gonna put this dagger under the middle bowl.”

“O-Okay.” I stutter, watching him act out his words, placing the dagger underneath the middle bowl carefully.

“What happens next is I start moving these bowls around.” He explains, similar exaggerated hand movements filling my focus. “You just have to pick the bowl your dagger’s under.”

I nod, looking back to Jake, Meg and Claudette whose faces shared the same look of confusion and intrigue. I lean in further for the game, the man’s hands resting on the middle and right bowls.

He starts spinning them around wit deft fingers, sliding the bowls around and alternating hands as he does so. I hear the pummel of my dagger scrape against the stone of the table with each rotation.

All of a sudden the man leaps up, with an alarmed scream. He holds his right hand to his chest, the same hand making exaggerated movements at that time. He pants and sputters like he had been burnt, glaring over at my companions.

The crowd becomes just as scared, the sudden change in his conduct was jarring at best.

“Well played” He wheezes, directing the comment to us three.

His face displayed a perfect frame of shock as he brought his left hand next to his head, clicking his fingers.

From his head down he begins to disappear, quickly vanishing from sight.

Panic was the primary emotion for the masses now, people who were watching moments before were now engrossed in their own fear making them run in all different directions.

“I’m gonna read his aura, just give me a moment!” I call to my partners, pulling my hands into a clawed pose, scanning the area to find something out of the ordinary.

I wish my aura reading was always unlocked by my patron, but the amount of spam I’d get from my bonding ability would drive me insane pretty quickly. It’s use was mainly to see through magic like this.

I hear Jake and Meg yell at each other over the distinct crackling of bones changing shape behind me. I can only trust they collected my dagger, but weaponry is not a detail Meg ever misses.

Sure enough, there he was, booking it through the back alleys. I loosen my grip on the air and run after him, my vision returning to normal.

Dark red seeps into the cloth around my cloak’s medallion, this time spreading all the way to the tips of the fabric dragging on the floor. I feel invigorated with my patron’s power, allowing me to step sideways.

The Entity’s realm was a great place to be in any situation. From the scratch-marks left on the ground by running people, to the fact the overworld’s magic meant nothing here.

I could see everything, especially my target.

If Jake and Meg had let me go after him Claudette probably followed me hence the cracking bones signalling a transformation.

She was smart, that was a given. Of course, if she knew I was going after him like this she would’ve counted on me using my power. Therefore:

My suspicions are confirmed when I hear a crow call, Claudette’s way of telling me she was on his tail too. We’d established early on my patron loved the crows, and as a result I heard every cry they made no matter how quiet.

I speed in front of the alleyway’s exit in an attempt to cut off his escape, stepping out of they greyed realm and back into the saturated light of the overworld.

His spell had worn off at this time, all the man’s features now presented in front of me. He takes a few steps back as I close in, stopping after one or two which is a surprise in all honestly, people usually back up a lot harder.

“Now, you don’t have to do nothing rash.” He puts his hands in front of him in a defensive position. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll still give you that reward for winning the game if you really want.”

He didn’t falter even for a second with the script, his charisma overwhelming in that aspect. This man had what was essentially a deadly weapon pressed against his neck and yet he still fails to show how hopeless the odds are of him leaving unscathed.

“It depends.” I think, I can get information out of him like this rather easily. “Tell me about this city’s skeleton key.”

“Irrsinn’s key?” He asks calmly. “Sorry, I used to know where it is, but it’s changed hands too many times recently, I lost track of it.”

“Do you know who might have it?”

“I would’ve told you if that was the case, believe me.” He restates.

‘Because I definitely trust you, buddy.’ Was what I wanted to say, preferably in an over-the-top sarcastic tone, but Meg was right when she told me we’ll need this guy.

“Do you know anyone who might know who has it?” I say instead.

The man crosses his arms, thinking for a bit and looking behind him to see Meg and Jake closing in, brought here by Claudette. He groans in defeat, turning back to face me. “I think so, yeah.”

“You got any info outta this sucker, Fairfield?” Jake teases, handing me Claudette who was previously perched on his fingers. I press two fingers under her breast, looking over to Meg as the bird climbs onto my fingers.

Meg hands me my dagger with a smirk, tapping our hostage to turn around so she can speak to him when Claudette settles on my shoulder and my dagger settles at my side.

“I don’t think Fairfield had the foresight to introduce us, or ask a name.” She starts, holding out her hand for a shake. “I’m Megan Thomas, or just Meg.”

“Ace Viscont—ah!” Meg twists his hand tight, causing him enough pain to want to fall on his knees.

“Thomas!” Jake hisses. She frowns and lets go of the poor man.

“I just scared him into talking, c’mon Thomas.” I shrug.

“You mean business.” He says in a breathy exhale, getting back onto his feet shakily.

“This guy knows who has the Ondskab key.” I inform the others.

“How do you know the guy’s trustworthy?” Jake asks, “You realise why he got his hand burnt, right?”

I look at him sideways, in all honesty the thought hadn’t crossed my mind before even though it should’ve. It was such an odd thing to happen, I was just focused on him running from me and the commotion that had followed.

“The dumbass thought it was a good idea to lift wallets with a projectile mage hand.” Jake explains, “instead of calling him out I had someone hold my enchanted bag of holding.”

I look over to the scam artist in a new light, studying his features. Normally I wouldn’t judge another’s mistakes, but that was a stuff up of epic proportions.

“I should’ve known it was consecrated and I should’ve known to tell you guys to leave. I thought it’d make people focused on you if I let ya play.” He rubs his temples clockwise. “I just wanna get out of this trash hole to somewhere I don’t have to bathe with fifteen other men.”

Jake laughs at that outlook, shaking his head. “I think I see where you’re going.”

“I’ll help you get the key just take me out with you.” He shakes his head.

“That sounds fair to me.” I chime in.

“Why can’t you just leave?” Meg asks.

“The guards won’t let anyone who looks like a commoner go, or someone who doesn’t have a seal of approval from the church.” He explains. “The seal of approval thing is basically only for the preachers of Irrsinn the sonsovbitches.”

“Makes sense I guess.” Jake sighs.

“I’m Dwight Fairfield, by the way.” I nod, holding my hand out for him to shake although he’s understandably hesitant.

“Ace Visconti.” He introduces himself in full, looking over us all. “Didn’t you guys have a cat?”

Claudette caws at her reference, fluffing her feathers and cocking her head.

“This is Claudette Morel, but she likes being called by her first name.” I scratch the underside of her beak. “She thinks the whole last name tradition thing is weird.”

“She’s a druid.” Meg laughs, noticing Ace’s bewilderment. “Wood-elf to be specific.”

“You’re an orc, right?” Visconti squints in the darkness.

“Half-orc.” She corrects, “Park’s a human and Fairfield’s a high-elf.”

“Yeah, I’m half high-elf myself.” Ace admits, “you learn how people work when you gotta appease so many, right?”

“Speaking of people.” Jake seeds.

“Yeah.” Ace sighs, stepping past me and walking out of the alley into the street.

This'll be interesting.


	2. Ondskab (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to my Beta reader caandlelit for fixing my shit.

Everything seemed a lot more open and normal now we had Ace, his little ensemble of sham enthusiasts scattered around their daily lives.

Before, we had all remarked on how quiet the city had been to us and how we hadn’t seen many people, so it was impressive to see a single figure attract so many men, women and children to a single location like flies to a fresh corpse.

We follow Ace’s steps as he twists and turns through the cobbled paths of Ondskab, making sure he doesn’t create too much of a lead in front of us as we struggle to keep up.

Claudette’s feathers brush my cheek as she takes flight to settle on Ace’s shoulder. He was surprised to have her there, but if he was uncomfortable with her presence, he doesn’t say anything about it.

He stops after a few minutes of this recital in front of an unsuspectingly normal house. Soft light poured out of the windows, there was sound of activity, but even that was limited and quiet. It was interesting, if I was to find this house myself, I highly doubt I could do it efficiently.

When Ace could see us all, he knocks on the door and waits for an answer. The door swings open relatively quickly from first knock, a short, wrinkly older lady looking down at him.

I look over to Meg and see her beam with a toothy orcish grin that screamed victory.

“No flowerpots.” Jake whispers in her ear with an immature giggle, just loud enough for me to hear.

“These travelers just need to talk to the board.” He mutters to her. I see Claudette turn her head so her bird ear was listening in on the whispering.

“Do you mind?” He turns his focus to snap at Claudette who flies back to Meg’s shoulder. “As I was saying…”

Ace’s conversation wasn’t audible from that point forwards, but a few seconds later the lady turns to us, gesturing for us to walk inside.

We do so at her request, stepping into the premises single file with Jake entering last.

The home’s interior was decently decorated if not slightly compact. It seemed like the kitchen and the common room were the same area with the single fire-pit having various pots, pans dangled over it as well as seats scattered on the floor around it.

The light from candles hanging from fixtures on the walls bathed the area bright gold, and looking out the window made me realise it was reaching the evening much quicker than I first anticipated.

The lady walks to the stairs looking us up and down in judgement with the sides of her mouth a subtle sneer. “Firstly, I want the orc’s sword somewhere she can’t reach.”

Meg looks slightly offended but obliges none the less, unsheathing the thing carefully and looking for somewhere to place it, settling on the fireplace’s headpiece after a moment’s thought.

“Secondly, the elf can’t be wearing that cape.” She points to me.

I look down at myself and my attire. In the hands of a skilled thief, little things could definitely be stored underneath the cloth of the cloak without anyone ever suspecting foul play.

I do as I’m told, even if I am not a thief, pressing hard on the pin keeping my cloak together. I feel it click softly, pulling apart into two circular halves of a whole.

I coil the cloak into a ball with my hands, wrapping the blue cotton into itself like a weaver would spin their wares in a loom, only with much less grace, of course.

“Lastly, the bird goes with the human outside.” She points to Claudette who was still on Meg’s shoulder.

Jake walks behind Meg and holds her shoulder for Claude to run up his arm. I wanted to laugh at her when she slipped on his shiny metal armour but I hold my tongue.

The woman leads Ace, Meg and I up the stairs to the second and then third floor where we’re met by an ensemble of men sitting around a table playing some random game of cards.

There were five figures in all, mostly elves from what I can gather, all wearing tinted glasses like Ace. It’s clear now that the purpose of the tinting is so onlookers have no clue where the eyes are positioned, it’s rather clever in honesty.

“Good evening, Visconti.” One of them greets without so much as taking his eyes off the cards.

“I don’t wanna trouble you boys, so I’ll make it quick.” Ace begins, rocking back and forth onto his heels as a fidget. “I’m helping some travelers find Ondskab’s key.”

“Why should we help you with that, Visconti?” One of the men deadpans, tapping the table thrice, a man sitting at the table’s head sliding him another card face down.

“It gets the key out of the city and we stop getting explorers and treasure hunters meeting their ends in our alleys.” Ace pitches, working some of the mentioned half-elf charm on the men who don’t seem to be taking effect.

“What makes you think we know who has the key?” The man to the other’s right asks, holding his hand out to the elf with the pile of cards in an abstaining motion.

“Are you joking? You guys know everyone worth a damn in this city!” Ace laughs smoothly. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed with his bravado.

The elf with the cards lowers his tinted glasses, his eyes boring into Ace. “He said: What makes you think we know who has the key?”

Silence falls on the room as I see Meg tense out of my peripheral vision. I know she’s waiting for a fight, but I can’t see a fight as bringing anything but negatives to this situation.

“About seven gold coins.” Ace breaks the tension, looking at me and Meg with a forced grin.

Shocked looks are given among the men, some laughing at him and his proposition.

“Put a zero on the end.” I groan in annoyance, seeing Ace exhale quietly in what I assume to be relief.

Smiles are shared amongst the table’s occupants as Meg frowns, pulling her coin purse out of her pocket.

The way she frowns is interesting to me as it has a tendency to reveal her pronounced lower teeth. Normally half-orcs are identifiable before then though, on account of their forward lower jaws and slightly green-brown tinted skin.

Meg wasn’t green at all, in fact her skin tone was only slightly darker than my own. If anything she looked slightly ill, something Claudette insisted on when we first met.

We pull out the equivalent of twenty-five coins each, approaching the table and setting the coins down on the skirts of the game area.

“That’s seventy.” I announce.

The elves count for a moment before petting me on the side of my upper arm. “Her name is Mashtyx, not her real name obviously but it’s what she goes by.”

“Oh, her.” Ace says the mention of her existence with a twang of venom on his lips. “She’s stolen hundreds of coins worth of items from me but I can never catch her.”

“Is she like you?” Meg asks vaguely but he seems to catch on anyway.

“I don’t think so, not that I’ve seen her use magic.” He shrugs, “she’s quick though, and agile. She runs away before you even know she’s there.”

“So how do we find her?” I shrug.

“For seventy I—_we_ can probably set something up for you guys.” The first man to greet Ace speaks again, looking around the room.

“We don’t want her per-se, we just want the key.” I remind them.

“We set your party up with her, then you do whatever you want, little man.” Another scoffs.

“How do we know the meeting’s time and place?” Meg asks.

“Tell… us...?” The card dealer looks at her confused. "How else are we going to arrange the meeting?"

“Goldhaven inn’s attic, we’ll be there from midnight to three in the morn.” Ace folds his arms, rocking on the balls of his feet in smug confidence.

“Sure thing, old man.” The round table of larceny brushes him off, the woman standing silently behind us leading us back down the stairs again.

Meg picks her sword back up, sliding it into her sheath and I grab my cloak again, feeling a lot more comfortable now I was back in my blue drape.

We close the door behind us quietly, making note of the fact it was now anywhere from six in the evening to nearly half seven.

“I hope you got the key.” Jake tells us, Claudette making a nest in his already thin, scruffy strands of black hair.

“No, but we know who has it.” Meg grins, “or more like, who probably has it.”

“Name?”

“Mashtyx.” Ace folds his arms, “she’s new to the scene, but she’s good and in a city like this, that’s high praise.”

“We got the men in there to hook us up with her from midnight tonight. We should head to—Goldhaven, was it?” I explain, turning to Ace for confirmation last second.

Ace nods, “It’s only a fifteen minute leisurely walk from here. Mainly used for illicit dealings, so it isn’t an odd place to request her presence.”

Ace turns out of the alley, walking into the surrounding evening shade. The light had been failing for quite some time, only now was it starting to become a problem though as visibility plummeted.

“In all honesty, I’m glad we ran into you.” I laugh as we follow Ace through the dirty gothic streets of Ondskab’s backalleys.

“Needed a tour guide, did we?” He teases.

“That among other things.” Meg returns the sentiment. “In all honesty, I’m amazed we could find an arcane rogue as is.”

“Yeah, you are rather useful.” Jake nods, Claudette cawing in agreement.

In the short amount of time I’ve known Jake, it’s very easy to pick out when he’s being earnest and when he’s just saying things in order to keep the peace.

Maybe it’s because it’s an unholy thing to lie and he’s just skirting around that by deliberately sounding ungenuine. It could be something else, but I think that explanation makes the most sense.

Jake strikes me as a man who plays by the rules but tries relentlessly to bend the ones he refuses to break. Whether it be through creating loopholes or following everything to the letter for his own gain.

“You kids flatter me.” Ace jokes, dramatically feigning embarrassment as we continue down the path to the inn.

Eventually Ace stops in front of a building with a lantern out front, much like the one we entered before.

“Are you sure we can have the attic no questions asked?” Meg questions Ace.

“I sure hope so! I do live there after all.” He laughs, entering the building.

“Why would you arrange the meeting in your residence?” Jake gives him a bewildered look.

“Because I’m leaving with you after this?” Ace looks back at him just as concerned.

Jake’s features soften, he had clearly forgotten instead of it having anything to do with breaking our promise to Ace.

Meg laughs quietly at Jake, I see him prepare to ream her out. He must have remembered the fact Claudette decided to make a nest with his hair in time for him to hold his thoughts, settling for an annoyed huff instead.

I whistle to Claudette, holding out my forearm which she eagerly grasps onto with sharp claws.

The inside of the inn was nothing noteworthy. It was slightly dirty and didn’t look like somewhere innocent people passing through would be attracted to.

Nevertheless, the lady at the front desk looks Ace up and down, letting us all through without issue.

It dawns on me how crazy everything we get away with is considering our collective appearance.

We’re an elven warlock with a dark blue cloak dragging the floor, a paladin wearing flying colours, a heavily armed half-orc and a literal bird.

Ace leads us up several flights of stairs, reaching the top floor out of four stories, the fourth being the attic the meeting was taking place in.

We spread out Ace’s abode, looking over the various interesting items he kept. The room was in no way clean, instead it was dreadfully disorganised. That being said, there was a little clutter but none of it was dusty or covered in any grime from neglect.

The small space, as incredulous as it should’ve been under Ace’s rule, seemed surprisingly humble and homely.

“We have a few hours, count four.” Ace looks outside the window to gage the moon. “Can someone light those candles?”

I click my fingers and in a fluid motion fiery red dust lights a few candles surrounding us.

The residue from the smoky embers makes the atmosphere slightly uncomfortable and closed in until Ace reopens the window.

“Firstly, I want you guys to know where you’re hiding when the time comes.” Ace walks around the room, pulling away some furniture to reveal most things were acting as concealers to something greater.

“Fairfield, can you use that shadow thing to hide?” Ace asks in between grunts of exertion, however in honesty the chest of draws he was moving seems rather heavy.

“Not for very long. About twice as long as one can hold their breath.” I explain.

“You can do it on command though, right?” Ace walks over to a large and expensive looking painting hanging on the wall, beginning to move it.

“Yes, the casting time depends on how important the situation is, though.” I shrug, looking over to my companions who were looking around for hiding spots.

“All I need is you to be able to do is take her by surprise and restrain her.” Ace informs me, yanking the painting away to reveal a hidden room containing what seems to be a bed and other possessions hinting a bedchamber.

“Claudette can act as a statue or something, as long as she doesn’t do anything to spook our guest.” Ace takes the bird off of me, placing her on a shelf high above his own head and turning his back to address us again.

We hear the sound of bones cracking and growing, a sound one can never truly become accustomed to. Ace and I cover our ears, annoying sounds, high pitch frequencies and other sounds play havoc on elves and their hearing, often leaving us deafened for a short while.

We turn around to notice Claude had changed back into the black cat from before with her innocent chocolate stare and down-turned ears.

The cat pools in the shelf, her tail spilling over the edge and giving an occasional flick of life.

“I can never get used to that bloody sound.” Meg shakes her head.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Jake asks Claudette, even though he knows she can’t reply. “Because it sounds like it hurts.”

She just mewls at him, yawning and resting again.

“She made the right call though, a cat’s a more natural thing to have around than a bird.” Meg shrugs, still looking for a suitable hiding spot. “You can just call her a stray or something, Visconti. I’m not sure how you’d explain a bird.”

He laughs with her, looking at Jake who was feeling up a suit of armour.

“Think I could fit in this and stand still?” He jokes, “or use it as a dance partner?”

“Dance partner?” Meg laughs, popping up from behind a group of barrels.

“You can’t see it?” He chuckles, holding the suit under its armpits and lifting it off the stand keeping it upright.

He walks near the center of the room, pulling the armour close to him and lifting its arms so it was holding his shoulders.

“That’s the closest you’ll ever be to dancing with a real person.” I joke, watching him swing the suit around by the waist, doing a traditional ballroom waltz.

“Don’t rub it in, Dwight.” Meg teases, “He’ll never be able to hold a woman like that anyway.”

I look at her sideways when she mentions my first name, but I don’t complain about it.

“That’s a male suit.” Ace corrects her.

Meg and I lock eyes, trying to hold in immature giggles until I cave, and before I know it both Meg and I are buckled on the floor in stitches.

“I know.” Jake fires back, jokingly making noises like there was music playing, swinging the lifeless man around the room. “Do you think I care it’s a male suit?”

“I’d put on music, but I don’t think it’d be that wise.” Ace sits down at a table in the middle of the room, absently shuffling a deck of cards sitting there.

“Do you have a hiding spot, Park?” Meg asks, ducking down behind the barrels in a flair for the dramatic.

“Inside you?” He flirts, putting the suit of armour back.

I fall into a fit of giggles again, only just recovering from my last episode.

I can never figure this guy out. One minute he’s pious and straight-laced and the next he’s propositioning sleeping with Meg. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism, make everyone else embarrassed to hide the fact he’s been dancing with a male set.

Ace rolls his eyes, looking back to Jake. “Y’know, if you took off the armour, you’d hide better.

“Yeah, I think I might just get behind this painting instead.” Jake walks over to the open chamber way, sitting on the floor on the other side of the threshold.

“That works.” Ace shrugs, pulling a random card from the pile in front of him. “First person to get the card gets a gold piece.”

“Five of hearts.” I say, bored.

“Nope.”

“Five of hearts.” Jake groans.

“No.” Ace glares at him.

“Five of hearts.” Meg grins, evily.

Ace shifts his weight, slamming the card face up on the table, showing the seven of spades.

“What time is it?” Jake asks, looking around the room he was sitting in.

“We still have three hours, two n’ a half.” Meg answers.

“Got any stories, Visconti?” I ask, he shakes his head.

“Not much happens here other than the daily grind.”

“Thomas?”

“Jake!” She redirects.

“Claude.” He points to Claudette who perks her ears up at her name.

She shakes her head, spilling over the edge of the shelf and landing silently on Ace’s table, lifting a paw to me to shift the attention yet again.

Fingers were pointed for a few more minutes, a soft half hour passing until Jake decided to tell a story about moving to the Germanic lands from the far East. He didn’t take telling it very seriously, as whenever he recounted dialogue he purposefully quoted in the original language the sentence was said to him.

“—and that’s how I managed to eat a whole rock.” He finishes recounting the tale, all of us now having very confused expressions, even Claudette looked concerned before closing her eyes again.

“Wait, what? A rock?” Meg fumbles for words, squinting in thought.

“Just thought I’d slip something nonsensical in. I didn’t think you were listening.” He confesses, shrugging at her.

“We were listening, mainly because we can’t do anything else.” I inform him, “Do you understand how weird it is hearing you swap languages so quickly and efficiently?”

He looks at me with thin lips as if to say he was unable to relate.

“It should be near midnight soon.” Ace slumps further into his chair, holding out a hand to pet Claudette who had fallen asleep by this point. “There are two entrances to this place, the window and the door.”

“and?” Meg shrugs.

“I think she’ll come through the window.”

“She might knock, you never know.” I look at the door near Meg’s barrels, still ajar on account of someone not giving it a hard enough push… that might’ve been me.

Meg leans over the barrels, pushing the door shut so we hear a click from the latch keeping it firmly in place.

“Window for me, I feel she’ll enter in an act of…” Jake struggles for words, “a certain… selective idiom.”

“A certain what?” I laugh at him.

“Nevermind.” He laughs back. “I meant, a flair for the dramatic, y’know.”

“I think so.” I hug myself tighter, wanting to pool into the floor and step sideways from sheer unbridled boredom. “I’m imagining her rolling through the window and landing on the floor, standing up gently and flicking her hair out of her face.”

“Is that when she delivers the one-liner?” Ace adds to my fantasy, making me giggle.

“It has to be.” I agree, looking up from my bed of blue. “What would she say?”

“You wanted to see me?” Meg offers, flicking one of her ginger braids out of her face and jutting out her chest in a comical attempt of seduction.

“I hope you weren’t waiting on me too long.” Jake forces the pitch in his voice, flicking his own scruffy hair out of his face and jutting out his chest, descending the fellowship into immature giggles.

“No, stop.” Ace’s laugh morphs into a groan as he buries his face in one of his hands. “That one hits way too hard.”

“Well how long have you all been waiting?” An unfamiliar accented female voice cuts through the air, chilling it with her presence.

We look around the room, now stone quiet. I feel my fight or flight kicking in making me bolt upright, my right foot already half-way into the wall ready to fall into the shadows.

“About four hours give or take.” I answer, still on edge. “Also, can you enter through the door please? I don’t want to explain why, just do me a solid.”

I see a figure step through the window, sitting on its inside ledge. She was wearing skin-tight black attire with a few belts and pouches that appeared to be holding helpful miscellaneous items.

As she gets off the ledge to stand, she even flicks some of her black hair out of her face. I swear to whatever gods are there, Meg just created a prophecy.

“Why would I want to enter through the door?” She laughs confused.

“Because I will it, mortal.” I deadpan, my heartrate returning to normal. I take my foot into the mortal plane again to walk behind her and close the window.

“So, it’s you, Visconti and the cat?” She asks, trying to get bearing of her surroundings, probably looking for a clean exit.

I hear giggles from the others’ hiding places.

“We’re so good at hiding we didn’t even have to try.” Jake pokes his head through the doorway with a giggle.

Interestingly, he wasn’t visible from the windowsill, neither was Meg. Even though they were both upright the visitor still wouldn’t have noticed them.

She jumps at his presence, stepping to her left a bit to see Meg climbing out behind the wall of barrels.

Her expression was a mixture of shock and fear, which was weird given what high praise Ace gave her before.

“I think we all know how dumb what you just did was.” Ace looks at her sideways.

“I know, I wasn’t thinking.” She says quickly, holding her hands in front of her. She pulls all her weapons from their pouches, littering the floor with knives and other assorted tools for debauchery.

We watch her inch closer to the door, stopping when she’s met with Meg’s weight sealing it closed.

“Ondskab’s skeleton key.” Jake says, providing no further explanation but her face gave all the details he needed to know.

“I have it, it’s right here.” She pulls it from a breast pocket. “I was planning on planting it here if this was about anything other than the key, I’m happy I can just give it to you.”

She walks over to the table, slightly hunched over in anticipation. She places it daintily on the table and Ace goes to grab it only to be stopped when Claudette scratches his hand causing him to recoil in pain.

I go to grab it instead, flicking it closer to me and picking it up in two smooth consecutive motions, clipping it to the underside of my cloak’s medallion whilst glaring at Ace.

Three rings for each key were hanging below the pin itself, all of them were golden in colour yet it was clear each key belonged in a certain spot, Ondskab being the far right.

“Okay, now I’ve given you the key can I go?” She asks, clearly scared.

“How’d you acquire the key?” I ask, still blocking the window for her escape.

“I lifted it from someone’s house, it seemed valuable.” She explains.

The skeleton key was rusty and gothic, it seemed like it would open an old gate to a rural property. It could spark many imaginations but did not emanate wealth.

“Liar.” Jake accuses.

“What?” She jumps, shocked and scared.

“Liar.” Meg states, repeating Jake’s words.

“Okay, I did steal the key but it… Spoke to me? It’s like it wanted me to take it.” She changes her story, now trying to avoid my eyes. “Now all these people are after me and I just want to be rid of it.”

The room’s atmosphere loses some of its intensity at her confession, the key feeling unnatural as it dangles from my mantle.

“I knew the man I robbed was powerful and stuff, I just didn’t realise how important that key was.” She explains calmly, her bottom lip quivering. “I don’t care what happens to it now, I just want to be able to sleep again.”

Silence falls on us, and the room seems to give no ambiance to stop the silence from becoming deafening.

“Do you want to come with us, Mashtyx?” I offer, walking closer to her to seem more friendly.

“No.” She pushes me away gently, forcing a smile. “No, I like it here. I just want to be rid of the key.”

Silence falls on us again until Jake stretches audibly walking over to Ace, Claudette and I to slap me on the back. “Mission accomplished, I suppose.”

“Are you sure you want us to just take the key?” Meg asks her genuinely.

“Yes, I don’t want any part in this madness.” She crosses her arms, “Whatever’s going on is bigger than me alone.”

Mashtyx pushes past me and Jake to pick up her weapons and other items before walking to the window, jamming it open with little care and stepping over the side to the night’s embrace.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t talk for longer.” She frowns, tucking her black hair behind her ear. “You all seem nice, even your cat.”


	3. Ondskab (Intermission)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't Beta'd unfortunately, I would love someone to volunteer to Beta for me though, it's an important part of narrative writing. :)

“So, as a man would sleep with a woman…”

“I’d sleep with a man, yes.” Jake finishes Meg’s question, rolling up his sleeping bag with both hands.

“Would you sleep with a woman?” Claudette asks, hauling her own gear onto the back of the wagon, fitting her black dreadlocks out of her dark face. The baubles on her deer-like antlers flitting in the air when she moves her head.

“It depends. I suppose I would.” Jake ties up the bag, throwing it onto the wagon and missing, hitting me instead as I was sitting on the wagon’s side.

He winces but quickly gets over it as I didn’t fall, instead placing the bag behind me with the rest of our things.

“The real question is, as a woman lies with a man would you lie with a man?” Ace asks, fastening his leather shoulder pads to his left before sliding on a light gauntlet that covered the majority of his forearm.

Jake smiles at him through the side of his mouth, turning to grab the rest of his armour as he was only wearing his colours from the waist down, his chest covered with a black undershirt.

“I think it would depend on the man.” I chip in my view, catching Meg’s gear as she tosses it to me to put on the wagon.

“Thank you, Fairfield.” He laughs, picking up his shield and flail to put on the wagon.

“Don’t throw those, Park.” Meg jokes. “We don’t want a dead warlock.”

We all laugh just enough to lift spirits in the harsh, crisp morning.

“Is that why you became a paladin? To swear an oath of celibacy so you didn’t have to confront your urges?” Meg theorises, weaving a narrative of her own.

“Nope,” Jake confesses, hands on hips. “It was to get away from my fiancée.”

“You said you’d lie with a woman?” Claudette recalls.

“And I would! I just didn’t like her; she was brash, abrasive and an annoying person in general.” Jake folds his arms at the memories, “she was fun at first, but we were meant to rule a small kingdom, not have fun.”

“I’m sorry you were meant to WHAT?” Meg yells, clutching the wagon’s sides in a mixture of intrigue and shock.

“Calm down, it was only a small kingdom.” He waves her off in a dismissive motion.

“key word is ‘kingdom’ I think.” Ace corrects him.

“I say kingdom, it was really just miles of farmland and two or three towns.” Jake downplays it.

“You told us that story whilst we were waiting for Mashtyx, yes?” Claudette remembers, “You mentioned running away from your father’s expectations.”

“My mother and older brother died in a raid a few months before he was going to inherit the place from my dad.” Jake secures his discarded weapons and armour, getting down from the wagon. “The responsibility fell to me and I just didn’t want it.”

I swivel around so I’m facing into the wagon, standing to help up Meg. “That seems harsh.” I feel myself give a thin and empathetic smile.

“What happened to the girl?” Ace asks, making sure his weaponry was secure on his belts.

Jake thinks for a moment, his face telling he wasn’t prepared for that question. He shakes his head with a frown. “She was from Qinga, I know that much. But whether she went back there or stayed in Joseon I’m not sure.”

“Doesn’t matter now though, does it?” Ace rolls his shoulders to attune to his armour, ending the matter and changing the subject quickly and efficiently. “Anyway, where to next?”

“Heilig ideally.” Claudette jumps onto the wagon, looking through the map so she can plot a course across the country.

I look over to Jake whose expression held relief and sorrow at the same time. I’m well aware his love life is none of my business, but it seemed from an external standpoint he had real feelings for this woman.

Something tells me I shouldn’t dwell on it for too long and instead focus on Ace, that’s likely what Jake wants anyway.

“Can you guys not drop me off at Heilig?” Ace requests. “A city like that’d ruin me.”

“What’s the alternative?” Meg shrugs, half asking Ace and half asking Claudette.

“Well after Heilig we’re off to Kvan, right?” I ask for confirmation, leaning back to look over the map with Claude.

“Kvan’s a neutral party if I recall.” Jake offers, his body language returning to his normal relaxed self.

“I’d be comfortable with Kvan.” Ace stretches, removing the blocks from the wagon and chucking them up to me.

“But we’ll still have you through Heilig?” I ask.

“If that’s not too much of a bother.” Ace sighs.

“It’s not.” Jake assures.

“Glad we settled that so quickly.” Claudette jumps off the wagon, landing at its head near the two beams of wood that keep the horse in its place carrying the cart. “Yell directions to me if I go off course, I’m not perfect.”

I hear her bones crack and force myself to look away, wincing in empathic pain and when the sound stops, we see Claudette as a large, black mare. She shakes her mane and begins backing into the cart’s fastening.

I tuck my cloak behind my shoulders, stepping onto the beam to lock her in. I give her back a light slap so she knew she was secure and could start moving whenever she wanted.

I hop down from the wagon to join the rest of my party save Claude, seeing most of them weren’t fully armed.

Jake was only wearing half of his armour holding only his side arm on his belt, Meg following tune. She was wearing her basic tunic but none of the additional belts and braces, her great-sword and sheath were in the wagon with most of our weapons.

“Do you two think you’ll be safe with such minimal armour?” I ask, looking up to the mid-morning sun. It seems to be a lazy and hot sun, waiting for the later hours in the day to show its full power.

“In sun like this we can probably see for miles on end.” Meg looks around the wide planes of our former campsite. “We’re in no danger.”

I shrug in response, looking to Claudette who begins moving forwards with the wagon. We know the journey will take a long time, say two or three days of straight walking only none of us had it in us to stay upright that long.

Heilig and Kvan were relatively close together in distance, only a few hours between each other or maybe a day at the very worst. From Heilig to Kvan might be slightly more torturous despite this on account of the fact there weren’t any towns on the way.

Ondskab to Heilig had two towns in the way, one having the road run straight through it and another requiring a turn off from the main cobble street. We could probably reach the former by night fall unless something happens on the way.

We’d likely be sleeping near the path night two, and night three will be in the furthest town. Ideally, we would reach Heilig by early afternoon in three days’ time.

Although I have high doubts that’ll happen given the party’s track record in competence.

A few hours pass without contest, my cloak and soon my tunic had been discarded into the wagon to avoid being conquered by the increasing heat, leaving me in only an undershirt, my baggy pants and hide boots.

Ace was still fully armed though, he even seemed antsy to a point when we met eyes once or twice.

Another hour passes when the silence is broken by Meg. “It looks noon, we should start looking for a water body to rest at.”

“Claude, do you need a break?” I ask her, hastening pace for two steps to place a hand on her mane. “One for yes twice for no.”

Claudette brays once, continuing her previous pace as I jump onto the wagon to look at the map.

Reading it revealed a body of fresh water a few minutes forwards, at our pace maybe another half hour’s walk. I announce this to the others who meet me with a chorus of relived cheers.

“How far off the trail is it?” Jake yawns, looking around into the open planes of farmland with cattle and run down houses occupying the land.

I groan to signal I was working on an answer for him. “We’ll cross a bridge soon, it’s private property so we should just be able to stop on the bridge or on the path near it.”

“Who buys a river?” Meg asks with a dumb laugh.

“The river wouldn’t be private property, the land around it would, but not the river itself, surely.” Ace answers for her.

“Depends on the size of the river I would’ve thought.” Jake ponders, “If it’s a very large body of water there’s no way someone would be allowed to own it all.”

“Even if we do end up trespassing, I doubt anything too bad will happen to us.” I stretch, loosening a strap going over my chest.

“Famous last words, Fairfield.” Meg jokes.

“Or just ‘last words’,” Ace ribs, “Fairfield’s about as famous as a secret organisation.”

“Creative.” I commend sarcastically.

“He’s more like Heilig’s brothel. He draws attention but no one wants to talk about it.” Meg laughs.

“Heilig has a brothel?!” Jake exclaims.

“Yeah! You can get yourself holy whores there.” Ace jokes. Part of me wonders if he’s telling a version of the truth or just going along with Meg’s statement to horrify Jake.

“I pray you’re joking.” Jake laughs with a certain serious undertone.

“They probably are.” I fold my arms. “But now I kinda wanna see the holy whores.”

We all laugh amongst ourselves, the mood light as ever despite the sweltering sun only made hotter when we start hearing the rushing of water.

I tense up, looking around the party like something very idiotic was about to happen, my suspicions confirmed when Meg rips off her tunic and throws it onto the back of the wagon. I watch as she runs to the bridge naked apart from a fitted cloth around her waist.

“Thomas!” I yell after her, looking to my companions who were just as lost as me.

Only Jake’s face quickly turns from fear to anticipation, undoing his belt buckles and straps near his feet to discard his armour and throw it onto the back of the wagon as well.

As soon as Jake was pulling off his undershirt Claudette picks up her pace, pulling over near the side of the road and beginning her changing process. I look away when I start to see the bones under her skin move, instead being met with a nearly naked Jake running into the river like Meg.

I hear Ace mutter something about crazy kids with a laugh, walking to the river’s bridge still fully clothed.

I turn again back to Claudette who had a giddy smile on her face, hurrying to take off her leaf based dress with full knowledge I was a few meters from her.

“Do you need help with the clasp or something?” I ask her innocently.

She gives me a look, shimmying out of her clothes. “You can help me out of them later if you still wish.”

I take a second to process her comment, watching her run to the river fully nude (unless antlers count but I doubt they do).

I ponder joining them for a moment, weighing my options.

I take off my undershirt, pants and boots, leaving them in the wagon over Claude’s dress and taking the time to hide Meg’s as a joke.

I discard my glasses for good measure and sprint to the riverbed, seeing my party and two other people in addition chatting in the chest high water.

I wade into the water at speed, tripping up on my own drag and falling head-first into the water much to the vocal amusement of my friends.

“Glad to know you have my back, guys.” I say sarcastically, walking to the group in large motions to combat the placidly moving river.

“Now and forever, Fairfield.” Meg jokes, turning to the two unknowns. “This is Jeff and Kate Johansen.”

The two smile at me earnestly, their apparel mirroring that of our own (that being minimal). The girl’s ears were slightly pointed as an elf’s would be, but the man’s were neatly round hinting a full blooded human.

Before I know what’s happening, the woman, Kate, takes my hand to shake it. “So, you an adventurer too?”

Her accent was like honey on my ears with the way she pronounced vowels somehow matching her metallic orange, wavy hair and piercing blue eyes.

“Uh, yup!” I respond awkwardly after realising I was being entranced by her, letting go of her hand and swimming away a foot or two.

“Don’t worry, man.” An unfamiliar gruff voice laughs, “she’s a beautiful girl with a feminine charm, don’t feel dirty.”

The rest of my party laughs at my expense, although the laughter is soft and relaxed as I watch the woman swim back into the arms of her man.

“She just took him by surprise.” Jake shrugs for me.

“Yeah,” I smile. “Are you two travelling to Heilig as well?”

“Heilig? No, we’re coming from there.” Jeff looks past my shoulder at the surrounding geography. “We were just about to start heading north to Vatin.”

“That’s a while away.” Ace comments from above us. The bridge nearly touched the water so him leaning over didn’t hold much difference to us if we were to stand upright.

“We know.” Kate beams, “you happy people was coming from the south-east, right? Coming from Ondskab?”

The names of these cities felt foreign on her tongue like it did with Claudette, the general perception she possessed which allowed her to gather where we had come from was impressive to say the least.

“Yup.” Jake replies, “Ondskab to Heilig.”

“So, you’re all magic?” Jeff asks, looking over his shoulder to a cart, presumably his, with armour littered around. “Ondskab’s rough, you don’t just waltz in and out of there.”

“Hah! I wish!” Meg exclaims.

“Not all of us.” Claudette laughs softly. “I am, Fairfield, Visconti and maybe Park on a sunny day.”

“I’m so lonely all the time.” Meg jokes, “I can never relate to these people.”

“Kate has bardic magic, I empathise with you.” Jeff laughs. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but even then you’ve got a one-up on us humans.”

Meg laughs at his assessment, looking over to Jake who was relating to Jeff’s sentiment.

“It ain’t that powerful, but it heals our bumps and bruises.” She humbles herself.

“I dunno, bards can be pretty powerful at times.” Ace dangles his arms over the side of the bridge to feel the water.

It’s weird the water’s this high, but it did rain all of the other day and the majority of yesterday too.

“Yeah, but I never thought of livin’ life like a real adventurer girl like you two.” She gestures to Meg and Claudette. “I’m only half an elf on my momma’s side.”

“Me too, but I got mine from pa.” Ace winks, “Heritage doesn’t matter, kid.”

“It really doesn’t.” I confirm. “I mean, I didn’t inherit any magic from either of my full blooded elven parents.”

I feel the eyes of our new companions turn to confusion before Jeff says something. “She said you could do magic.” He points to Claude.

“Yeah, I wasn’t born with magic.” I shrug, “I was approached by a woman whilst working in my father alchemy shop. Without going into too much detail, she got me in league with the being I call a patron.”

“You’re a warlock?” Jeff asks, his tone wasn’t shock, just interest.

“I suppose so.” I sigh, “It’s kind of an ugly word, but yeah.”

“Warlock?” Meg scoffs, floating on her back with her arms splayed either side of her. “Witch is an ugly word, warlock makes you sound cool.”

“Warlock makes it sound like I eat babies,” I retort. “Same goes for ‘dark magic’.”

“Elves don’t eat babies?” Jake teases. “Because I could’ve sworn—"

“Not elves, but orcs do.” I laugh at my joke and his, earning a swift glare from Meg who quickly loses her intensity and goes back to floating.

“I didn’t think warlocks were still a thing.” Kate hugs herself, pushing Meg to the right of her so they didn’t collide.

I look to the others in confusion, seeing similar expressions shared.

“Can you elaborate?” Claudette asks.

“What? I mean, like, I didn’t think the real powerful patrons talked to mortals no more.” Kate explains, “Unless you ain’t that powerful.”

“I’m not going to respond to that one.” I mutter, half to myself.

“Dwight’s powerful!” Claude defends me, “his patron lets him track people and shoot weird spikes from the ground and become invisible and make fire and—”

“Thank you, Claude.” I hiss, not aggressively but still with the intent to shut her up.

“I guess you’re rare then.” Jeff laughs.

“One of a kind.” Ace winks in a humorous manner.

“Not really.” I correct him, laughing. “My patron has a few other mortals doing its bidding.”

“None of us are truly one of a kind.” Jake says, “there’s always someone out there with the same skill-set or the same personality.”

“I guess so.” Claudette sighs, “but there can never be another person who’s a carbon copy of you, no? Another paladin mightn’t be from your country, or have your style, or tell your jokes.”

“But he could have one or two of those attributes.” Jeff throws in.

“Even all three and he wouldn’t be you.” Ace finishes for him.

Silence falls on us as we see Jake’s face contort as he thinks.

“Your analogy makes me want a twin.” Jake concedes.

“Even then, he would still be your twin, not you.” Claude continues.

“I said I get it.” He laughs at her, brushing wet fingers through his hair.

We all laugh for a bit, floating in the water idly when Meg changes the subject. “You guys said you came from Heilig?”

“We did.” Jeff nods.

“What was it like?” She asks.

“We just stayed the night, honey.” Kate put her hand to her chest, “I got no idea what’s happening in that city.”

“Why’d you wanna know?” Jeff questions.

“Let’s say we aren’t going to Heilig for a vacation.” Ace smirks, watching the two’s expressions evolve.

“What he means is that we’re going there for militaristic purposes.” I cover.

“Militaristic? You five are hardly what I think the military looks like.” Kate scoffs.

“Think of us as freelancers.” I stretch, emitting a short grunt of relief.

“You’re hirelings?” Jeff asks.

“I am.” Meg floats, “Jake’s part of the order, Claudette’s just a roaming druid, Dwight’s a hired-spell I think, and Visconti’s some old man we picked up in Ondskab.”

“I’m not a hired-spell, I just needed the money.” I blow wet hair out of my face.

“And I’m not that old.” Ace defends himself.

Kate giggles. “You people seem pretty close with the first name basis n’ all.”

I smile. “Not that close, we just don’t correct her.”

“I think that tradition is dumb.” Claudette announces. “Family names first makes it more confusing than given names.”

“I get that, most people just call me Denson to avoid it.” Kate shrugs.

“It’s just tradition though, no real reason we don’t all stop doing it.” Ace sighs, “Since we’re all brought up with it breaking that courtesy seems unnecessary.”

“Traditions evolve over time, maybe our children won’t have that practice.” Jake thinks. “Most of the order’s traditions are outdated and dumb.”

“Ah well.” I sigh, ending the conversation when all Jake gets in response are shrugs and grunts of agreement.

“It’s mid afternoon already.” Meg looks up at the sun, squinting in its brilliance.

“Mid afternoon? I’d make it early evening.” Ace turns west to see the top end of the sun and not much more.

“Regardless we should consider leaving.” Claudette rights herself from the floating, “I’m getting cold.”

“Me too.” Kate splashes, standing abruptly as she shakes down the water from her body, strolling back to their caravan with Jeff in tow.

“Thanks for the conversation, guys.” Jeff waves, walking after his wife.

Our group begins our way out of the water too, waving farewell to Jeff and Kate who soon pass us in Ondskab’s direction as we continue dressing.

“How long do we have left in us?” I ask the others.

“Until we should camp?” Jake clarifies. “I’d give it an hour or two.”

“Late evening?” Claudette asks, “Won’t it be dark by then?”

“Park’s the only one truly effected by the dark though.” I point to Jake who was still struggling to equip the rest of his armour.

“Visconti and Thomas have decent dark-vision, with Claude and I having the most reliable.” I explain.

“Ah humans, increasingly lame.” Meg teases Jake who takes it lightly, still rummaging around for her tunic which I had hidden before.

“I bet you’re ecstatic you just insulted your mother.” He retorts quickly and efficiently.

I see her face drop in shock before lifting again as she finds the humour in the situation. “I hate you.”

“I hate you too, Shnookums.” He wrinkles his nose as if he were talking to an infant.

I swear those two could insult each other all day without so much as beginning to offend the other. I just pray they don’t become romantic.

The night was a lot colder now we were all damp, even Claudette seemed to be feeling the cold as she drags the cart further down the cobble road.

The moon was becoming visible quickly as we lose whatever light was there formerly. The oranges of the sky flitting across the clouds above the planes we could see for miles around.

The private properties to our left and right had cleared land with mostly animals inhabiting it, the occasional tree calling out with the petty squabbles of birds wanting to call it home for the night.

There seemed no place to park for the immediate few miles of land. At one point Ace suggested a little light trespassing, but even Meg turned him down for fear of what could go wrong in these foreign fields.

Jake then suggested camping on the other side of the hill we were preparing to climb, but Claude seemed to be running out of steam as the night drew darker.

“We could just camp in the middle of the road.” I suggest, looking to the short yet daunting hill in front of us. “How many caravans realistically pass through here during the night?”

“Not many I’d wager; I still think it’d be poor form.” Ace eyes up the hill as well.

“Not to mention illegal.” Jake sighs, looking at the ground in front of him.

“I think the situation’s legality isn’t too relevant at the present moment.” I groan, hugging tighter into my cloak.

“Bend the rules for us, Park.” Meg jokes, knowing he was good at it.

“I mean, okay?” He folds his arms and tapping his foot as he thinks. “It is illegal to park in the middle of the street; but if we were to position the cart off the road in a way it wasn’t on private property and not on the road at the same time, we could sleep on the road itself and have it be legal.”

“Run that by us once over?” Ace asks confused.

“He’s saying if we get the cart between the property and the road it isn’t illegal.” Meg abbreviates. “We could then either sleep on the cart or the road itself and argue our way out of gaol.”

“That seems reasonable.” I shrug. “Claude?”

Claudette brays at her mention, shaking herself down and moving over to the side of the road to change shape.

We hear the cracking of bones as we find the little blocks of wood to hold the cart in place, shoving them under the cart’s wheels before it had the chance to roll away.

When we see Claudette resurface as a hominid again, shaking her antlers to be rid of whatever unnerving sensation changing forms befell. In essence, I always admired Claude’s ability to brush off seemingly painful occurrences, it was a merit of her stamina.

“I’d usually offer first watch, but creating fire is a bad idea.” Jake states, taking off his armour once more.

“I’ll take first.” Ace proposes, looking to me. “I might swap with Fairfield at midnight.”

“Why me?” I ask.

“You and I are the most useful to have responding first if something goes wrong at night.” Ace explains. “That and dark vision…”

I nod, I wasn’t going to argue, he was correct and I was much too tired to protest.

“Everyone else get some sleep.” Jake instructs.

Meg shrugs, resting against one of the back wheels with her great-sword on her lap. She covers herself with one of the blankets we have in the wagon and settles in her place.

Jake does likewise, grabbing a nearby blanket and wrapping himself and Claudette in it as they rest in the wagon itself.

I decide against grabbing a blanket, instead I pull my cloak tight around me and curl into myself where the grass of the paddock meets the stone of the road.

I watch as Ace takes a seat on a nearby rock, resting atop it and looking out into the fields around him for danger.

It may have taken me longer than it should’ve, but he was afraid of us. He hadn’t joined in with us at the river and seemed antsy before and after the fact. He was scared we’d jump him, or abandon him; he was scared he was intruding on our quest, on our lives.

I feel sad I can’t do anything to change his mind and reassure him he’s welcome, because in truth he isn’t. As far as I know all of us including him believe he’ll leave us at Kvan.

My thoughts dance to Jeff and Kate and what they’re doing at the moment. I hope they’re doing the same as we are, hunkering down for the night as visibility becomes all but none.

Ours was an interesting encounter, because these recent interactions have made me realise how many strangers in this world possess magical abilities.

In a warped way, it makes me question my own worth.

But I’m sure the mumbled whispers in the back of my head are telling me I’m still of value.


	4. Heilig (Part 1)

Heilig looked like perfection. Even though I highly doubt this place is perfect, what with the not-so-subtle references to holy whores littering our conversation as we look for the barracks.

In honesty, the architecture of this place was phenomenal. All structures were framed in light wood and filled with slightly dirty white stone, whether it be marble or granite I’m not sure. Most were also adorned with the same grey cobblestone that lined the paths under our feet as we made our way through the bustling town.

All the buildings we see are lively with smoke coming from most chimneys and people talking to each other as they traversed the central marketplace we were walking through.

The daylight seemed to reach every inch of the city, and even though the clouds obscured the sun from time to time, the light persisted.

I desperately look around for any ounce of shadow I could potentially escape to, feeling the bottles on my belt holding Misty Reagents as my only means of comfort in this land of light.

I didn’t ever think peace like this could make me so anxious, but the dawning realisation I was completely powerless here taxed me in ways I never thought, and it was clear Ace was feeling the same.

Our conversation dwindled because of this as we just resort to following Jake through the town, hoping he knew which way was which.

In Ondskab it took a while to feel out of place, even with Jake wearing his colours. Here in Heilig however we were definitely noticed by the masses, even if they weren’t vocal about it. I couldn’t help but see the sly looks and whispers surrounding us as we walked through the large town centre.

Everything was kept quiet until we heard a child yell from the crowd. “Mummy! Why does that lady have such large teeth?”

I pinpoint the sound with ease, looking at the mother’s appalled expression as she looks from Meg to her son and back again.

I look to Meg who also displayed some level of horror as her frown persists. I see her dart around the people of Heilig as more and more meet her eyes.

I practically hear her shrink in size as more attention is directed her way. It made me want to do something embarrassing like yell out obscenities, so people focus on me instead.

Jake picks up his pace so we traversed the streets faster, and as we venture further into the heart of the city it seemed people were looking at us less and less.

Soon we reach the barracks, and the air softens around us, feeling some measure of safety and security with the tower’s presence, even with the criminal background held by some of us.

I reach behind me into my cloak’s hood to pat Claudette who flattens to my touch, looking to Meg who seemed unhappy and embarrassed.

“Never thought I’d see the day I willingly entered a guard tower.” Ace jokes, breaking the silence.

“Hah, same.” Meg places her hands on her hips, “The only time I’ve been in a place like this was whilst I was detained for being drunk and disorderly.”

“How many times has that happened, huh?” I rib.

She stops for a second, going to count on her fingers. “Thrice.”

Jake shakes his head condescendingly, opening the door to the barracks and leading us inside.

The inside of the tower was comfortable yet busy, filled with uniformed guards who were talking amongst themselves or cleaning weapons. We walked through with minimal glares from the other men and women and those who were staring were mainly focused on Claudette, poking her head out from my cloak’s hood to greet them.

Luckily the guards know where Heilig’s key is, or at least the higher ups do. Our employer was kind enough to acquaint us, even if names weren’t exchanged. All we need to do is sort something out for them and they give us the key, that way everyone’s happy.

I just pray nothing goes awry.

Jake leads us to what appears to be the captain’s office, rapping his knuckles on the door a few times before opening it with us dragging behind him.

I don’t get a look at the captain before I see all the colour from Jake’s face drain away, his soul appearing to leave his body.

I quickly look to the captain, seeing a short elven woman with similar ethnic features to Jake. Her gaze was cold and dry as she bores holes into all five of us.

“So you four are the ones we’re trusting our little problem to?” She asks humourlessly, her accent ringing of eastern tones. “Funny, I was told you had a druid, not a—whatever you’re meant to be.”

Ace didn’t seem to take offence to her sneery comment, instead meeting her with a smile.

“Unless you’re the magic of the party, then what the hell does that make you?” She points to me.

Some weirdo with a cat if nothing else, but I wouldn’t dare say that aloud.

“Also funny is the fact I was promised a paladin, not a walking talking pile of filth.” She hisses at Jake who just looks at her with a dead gaze.

Meg and I exchange confused glances, and I feel Claudette under my right ear, looking between us both.

“I’m sorry if we offended you, ma’am… We just, want to help you with the uh, problem.” I barely make out, her aura too intimidating for me to focus, but I feel like someone needed to say something.

“I’m not offended, just disappointed.” She informs me, matter-of-factly. “I’ll tell you the deal; you sorry excuses for professionals get the underground fight club out of my city you keep the key you’re after.”

“That seems straight-forwards, is there a catch or something?” I ask.

“Do I look like kind of person who’d leave information out of a briefing?” She asks rhetorically. “Get the fighting out of my city and leave with your key.”

“Do you have something we can go over?” Meg steps forwards, placing her hands on the desk likely in an attempt to intimidate. I could hear it in her voice she was losing her patience.

“Get your hands off my desk for starters, orc.” She flicks Meg’s fingers off with her own nails. “and of course I do. This file has everything you need in it from names to dates.”

I take the file from her with a curt smile, eager to get out of this room. “Anything else we need to know?”

“Nothing illegal. you make me look bad I kill you myself.” She threatens. “Read that file in the barracks. As far as these organisers know we’re oblivious to their presence but we can’t risk a leak.”

I nod, exiting the room without breaking eye contact with the woman, Meg and Ace close behind me.

Meg brushes Jake on the shoulder with her hand, breaking him out of a trance earning a smile. I hear them converse for a few seconds and see the captain’s expression wrought with what can only be described as jealousy before the door closes behind Meg leaving Jake inside.

We all exchange glances of fear and uncertainty, before walking up the stairs and taking seats in a small common room, seats on the floor of course.

I set the folder down in front of me, opening it and spreading the contents with my hand over the floor.

“It looks like these guys have been operating for quite a while.” I mumble, looking to my companions who were already picking things out of the file to examine.

I feel Claude spill out of my hood and onto the hard wood floor, watching her come into view and sit in front of me to read the papers as well.

“What are we looking for exactly?” Meg asks, sifting through leaflets.

“The key I’d say.” Ace responds, “Or persons of interest.”

I feel myself sheepishly dart from Ace to my papers to Ace again, before I muster the courage to speak. “I’m not trying to sound offensive or anything, but can you even read, Visconti?”

“Nope, I’m just looking at the pictures.” He laughs, “I didn’t think much of you being able to read, but Thomas is a surprise.”

“It’s a surprise to me too, don’t worry.” She jokes. “I had a few years of classical education before I turned thirteen, I’m honestly impressed I remember most of it."

After a few minutes of silence pass Meg stops sifting, picking up a large sheet of paper and reading it for a few seconds. “You said persons of interest, right?”

“You found something?” I ask.

“I think so.” She hands me the paper.

It was a wanted poster depicting a man by the name David King, a tiefling by the looks of it who was being sought after on charges of assault, likely due to the fights, and drunken behaviours, likely due to the fighting’s afterparty.

I look up to my party and see Ace with a collection of papers. He turns them around and points to the drawings on each of them.

“Eye-witness sketches of the prize given to the winner of this tournament thing.” Ace gives the subtext. “Looks like the Ondskab key to me.”

“It does indeed.” I examine the drawings.

“This means the tiefling guy has it.” Meg states, reaching for the wanted poster.

“Not necessarily.” I say into my hand as it scratches my jaw. “It just means he’s involved with whatever’s going on.”

“But we need to find him.” She reiterates, I nod.

“If the guards haven’t found him yet what makes you think we’ll be able to pinpoint the guy?” Ace asks, putting down whatever he was looking at.

“The chief is downstairs to our left?” I give him a quizzical look. “We can ask her.”

“I swear I wanted nothing more than to tie a cloth around her mouth to shut her up.” Ace groans, looking around at the guards near us but none seemed to notice.

“Same.” Meg flops down onto her back leaving her open for Claudette to jump onto her mid-section. “Yeah, the paper’s rather old, I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy’s been caught already.”

“All we have to do is ask.” I sigh.

“I mean, yeah, but do we have to?” Meg whines.

“How else are we getting more information?” I fold my arms.

“So, does that mean we’re done here?” Ace asks.

“I mean, I guess” Meg shrugs.

“Let’s go to the captain and ask for the whereabouts of this man, then.” I tuck everything into the folder again, clenching it under my armpit as I lead the others back downstairs.

“We should also collect Jake while we’re at it.” Meg sits up as I’m walking down the stairs, scooping Claude her arms around and pulling her closer.

The first thing I hear is arguing from the other side of the door, loud arguing.

I open it anxiously and enter with the others at my heel.

“Meanwhile, you’re running around with a fancy oath and a team of retards, all the while you’re sleeping with that orc slut!” The captain gets the first words, Meg inhaling from shock when she hears her mention.

“I took that oath because I wouldn’t break it, and you bet your ass I stay true to my word!” Jake fires back. “Also how dare you talk about Thomas like that?! I trust that ‘orc slut’ with my life! I trust all of them with my life, even Visconti!”

“Well maybe that’s because your life isn’t worth that much in the first place.” She growls.

Everything goes quiet when she notices us in the doorway staring with pure disbelief in our eyes.

I hear Meg pray under her breath as I walk further into the doorway.

“I want the location of this man.” I slam the wanted poster on her desk, she didn’t deserve my decency, not now.

She glares at me, “David King? We’re pretty sure he’s holed up in the damn brothel we’ve been trying to have shut down. We’re also quite sure that’s where the fights are taking place—it says all this in the file!”

“Does it?” I turn to Ace and Meg who both shrug.

“I didn’t see it.”

“We’ve established I can’t read, I probably passed it by.”

“Just get out of here.” She snarls, sitting in her chair dishevelled.

That notion didn’t need to be presented again before all five of us were far away from the barracks, in the well lit street again which was a little darker albeit from the clouds prophesying rain to the masses. It was dark enough now I felt I could safely slip into the shadows without being burnt out.

We stand around in silence for a moment, waiting to see if we should mention whatever’s going on.

“I just wanted to thank you guys for getting me out of there.” Jake sighs, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Thanks for standing up for me.” Meg reciprocates.

“Me too, what you said means a lot.” Ace fiddles with his over shoulder straps.

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.” He says quietly. “What did you guys find?”

“I think you heard.” I sigh, “A guy called David King, a tiefling fighter or something.”

“You think he’s important?” Jake asks.

“He’s our best lead I’d say.” Ace looks around for any landmarks hinting a brothel.

“So we find the tiefling, pressure him into surrendering the key then get out?” Jake strategises.

“I don’t think so.” I think aloud, “If the brothel really is where the fights are being held, we should go later at night to maybe catch them all off-guard.”

“What do you mean? What’s stopping us from strolling into the place and clocking skulls?” Meg mimes the action of banging heads together.

“We only have the element of surprise once, we shouldn’t waste it.” Ace scolds her without it being harsh.

“So what are we doing, waiting until nightfall?” Jake asks.

“I’d say.” I nod, “we can watch the fight, pinpoint the key, secure it and take out the fighters!”

“Y’know.” Ace calls attention to himself, grinning chaotically. “We can just take they key and leave.”

Claudette hisses as though she was opposed to the idea, her weight shifting near the back of my neck so she was meeting Ace’s eyes.

“Oh c’mon Claudette! Are you telling me you wanna bow to that horrible woman? It’s clear she doesn’t like us, why should we shut this thing down for her?”

“Because two wrongs don’t make a right, Visconti.” I defend Claudette, “We have to be the bigger people and stop making enemies.”

“As far as I’m concerned, she’s the asshole here.” Meg argues, “Why should we be the bigger people? You’re all lying to yourself if you really think you’re gonna stay in this crappy country after all’s said and done.”

She was from the West Indies, like me and Claudette. I have to agree with the idea after all is said and done I’d leave as quickly as possible, but I still can’t give in to the context.

“I don’t agree with that, with you.” I state.

“You don’t have to.” Ace shakes his head. “Facts are facts and we should fight pettiness with pettiness.”

“So, you’re after revenge?” I ask. “This isn’t the way we should go about things.”

“All of you are wrong.” Jake announces, “Although I agree with Thomas and Visconti, Fairfield and Claude have a point. We should be the bigger people.”

“So how are all of us wrong?” Meg frowns.

“We should make our first priority the key, then evicting the fighters will be our bonus task. If we can live and let live we should, revenge isn’t the answer, but neither is meaningless violence.” Jake elaborates.

We’re all silent for a few seconds, waiting to see who’ll relent first.

“Jake’s right.” I look them all in the eyes as I say it. “If we can avoid bloodshed we should, but if we can realistically arrest these people, I won’t let you stop me from doing our objective.”

“If it’s not necessary, it shouldn’t happen.” Meg states, “But you’re right, if things get ugly we should fight back.”

“I guess we should count on the atmosphere of the place too.” Ace shrugs. “I’s sure the second we walk in we’ll know how the night ends.”

“I think that first things first we should get Jake out of that armour.” I gesture.

“Didn’t know you rolled that way Fairfield.” He flirts.

I give him a disappointed and uninterested frown. “I meant so you don’t scare off the perpetrators.”

I feel Claudette rub her face against my neck in a loving way, probably to challenge Jake even though it’s clear he was just joking.

“It’s not like I’m wearing a helmet, I could be spotted by anyone even without my armour.” Jake shrugs. “Plus, how many men that look like me are here in the Germanic lands? I stick out like a sore thumb!”

“Does that mean you admit to being one of a kind?”

“We had this argument, Meg.”

“We did.” She admits with a smile.

“I’ll take the armour off anyway, just for you.” He winks, making her laugh.

“Not in public, you dirty man.” Ace laughs.

Jake winks again, taking a few steps towards the paths from where we came moving towards the caravan.

“I’ll race you.” Meg looks Jake up and down.

“Bet?” He makes a similar motion, sizing her up.

“I’ll take it.” I join, drawing attention to myself as I place Claudette on the ground, melting into the shadows on the floor.

“That’s cheating!” I hear her bring down her foot from above me.

“Is it?” Ace clicks the fingers on his left hand, as I see him light up for me, now with a silver aura.

He swiftly traverses the overworld with Jake and Meg behind him, prompting me to stop floating around and go after them to win the race. I run through the realm, passing through unknowing souls like fingers through sand and dancing past the lights as I keep to the dark.

To my left Ace was slipping back into visibility as he loses breath, the marks behind him coating the walls and floor becoming less and less prominent.

Meg quickly bumps past him, her marks coating his until all I can see are dashes of red and orange coating the ground as I run to overtake her.

I see the town’s outer walls, so does Meg as she speeds up to the wagon.

In a split second I decide my desire to win was dwarfed by the pleasure of tripping her up.

I crawl along the shadows until I was keeping pace under her when I think I can, I quickly materialise only my hand to grab her ankle and pull her down.

She gives a satisfying yelp and she lands hard, drawing her sword and holding it with both hands. She catches a ray of sunlight and directs it onto my shadow, burning me out of the realm and forcing me into a pained stun.

I can’t help but laugh manically as she sheathes her sword and the pain subsides but I stop when I see her frowning angrily.

“What the hell, Dwight?” She demands angrily.

“What?”

“That’s so out of character for you! Why’d you trip me?”

“Did I hurt you?” I feel myself change in personalities, I didn’t care for her a few seconds ago, what changed just then?

“Yeah, dumbass, you did.”

“Oh wow, I’m sorry Thomas.” I say sincerely, getting up from the floor, still feeling the tingly from the burn.

“Thanks, I guess. I’m sorry I burnt you.” She folds her arms, her tone less hostile. “But why’d you do it? I never saw you pulling something like that.”

“I—” I think for a moment. “I wanted to?”

“What?”

“Can we let this go, please?”

“Uhm, no we cannot.” She says angrily.

“I know that’s a really bad answer, but something in me just thought it would be… fun.”

“I hope you realise how messed up that sounds.”

“I—Yeah, I do.” I shake my head. “I’m sorry Meg.”

She thinks about it for a second, clearly still annoyed. Nevertheless she offers me a hand up which I take, pushing my glasses further onto the bridge of my nose.

Once I’m balanced she flicks one side of them up to my eyebrow with a giggle. “That’s for ruining the fun.”

“I really am sorry, y’know.”

She sighs instead of responding, watching Ace join us out of breath. “I hope the race was worth it.” He heaves, placing his hands to his knees.

“You cheated.” I point at him accusingly.

“Only after you cheated.” He does likewise.

“Okay, okay.” I concede. “Where’s Jake?”

Ace appears puzzled for a second as he looks behind him. “Uh.”

“Did we leave him?” Meg asks sporting a large grin.

“I think we may have.” I snort. “How far behind is he?”

Ace side steps a bit to look for Jake, turning around whilst beaming. “He’s miles away, with Claudette.”

“Poor guy.” Meg laughs.


	5. Heilig (Part 2)

The atmosphere of this place was tense for us, but more than relaxed for the patrons here.

As Jake held Claudette in his arms and Meg looked over to me taking her shadow’s place, we felt like everything was on the line.

At the caravan I had performed a ritual that boosted our magic. Ace should be able to remain invisible for at least two more hours and I should be able to stay piggy-backing Meg’s shadow provided I don’t get to irritable.

Meg mentioned I could just trip up random people, but I didn’t find that joke as funny as she did for various reasons.

The brothel we were meant to be repulsed by had everything, two elven women on poles as men of all races throw their gold onto the counter, the bar had a line ten people long and the pews were rapidly filling up.

The cage was the main attraction however, two corridors opening into one chainmail box, old blood stains coating the floor. There was no doubt about it, that’s where the fight is taking place.

“Choose somewhere near a light source, we can’t risk Fairfield losing his grip on your shadow.” Jake whispers to Meg. “Visconti, I want you at the main exit, we need a clean escape.”

He can’t see it, but Ace does as he’s told, walking the way we came to stand guard at the exit.

“The fight’s in about ten minutes, right?” Jake asks Meg.

“Yeah, they’re gonna dim the lights first n’ stuff.” She responds, “Acting all dramatic.”

“Is that tiefling first up?”

“He wouldn’t be, surely.” Meg narrows her eyes. “They’d have little fights to excite the crowd, then bring him out.”

“The way you talk about him makes it seem like we’re about to watch a dragon eat dinner.”

“We might, I wouldn’t put it past him to start munching on the defeated.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s racist.”

They both laugh together, watching the crowds start to trickle back to the pews as a few ambient lights get cut, including the one next to us.

I feel the sensation of gates opening, spilling me out into the realm as the confines of Meg’s shadow is broken through the lack of light.

I see her panic slightly. “I think we lost Dwight.”

“What?” Jake looks over to the ground, unable to see her shadow with my shape.

“My shadow’s gone, is he still here?”

Claudette bats her paws in my direction to show her I was fine. Cats were interesting, they could always pick me out somehow. In all honesty it was unnerving above anything else.

“We can’t risk telling him to show himself.” Jake looks back to the cage as he speaks. “Claude just told us he’s here, we gotta trust he’s still listening.”

Meg nods as the lights dim around us further. An announcer enters the ring, his voice booming as he speaks.

“Thaumaturgy, that’s a damn cleric spell.” Jake shakes his head disapprovingly, “what a traitor.”

The announcer rambles on a long speech, hyping up the match for the men (and women) in the audience.

I crawl to Ace, seeing him resting against a wall with his spell still up. The position he’s in would make it near impossible to be spotted though, even if fully visible.

It interests me, even when invisible he clings to the shadows like he doesn’t trust himself, but if he can find these alcoves so easily, he mightn’t need the invisibility.

I can find the shadowy spots rather easily too, only falling to the otherside has way more benefits than mortal invisibility.

Like how I hear everything on this side of reality, breathing and whispers, in honesty it was annoying to hear everyone’s hushed nothings, but useful in select situations.

I could hear the couple on the other side of the room yawning in boredom, a woman backstage crying incessantly and even Meg and Jake joking about sleeping with the two human men punching each other into oblivion.

The fighting continues for about an hour, the bracket tiering up with each fight. We’d seen David about four times as the number one seed moving up and it was always the same brutal bashing that floored his opponents letting him win each time.

We’d been here two hours by that point and I felt myself slipping as much as Ace did, his aura wavering from silver to red as he tried to stay under.

I was ready to find a secluded place to resurface when I hear the thaumaturgy speak again.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen of Heilig’s pure grace!” He begins, some laughing at his joke.

“This is the fight you’ve been waiting for! The final fight for the key of champions! What it unlocks, no one’s quite sure, but what we do know is it opens the hearts of all ladies in a mile radius.” More people laugh at his jokes as he holds his hand up to quiet the onlookers.

“In one corner we have the new kid on the block, he may be inexperienced but that doesn’t make him any less likely to win! Our number five seed, Abate!”

Cheers are heard as a human enters the ring. He was wearing only pants like every contestant, on this man showing clerical tattoos that in theory gave him his powers.

“In the other is descended from the demons themselves! Our three time champion, and first seed, the infernal David King!”

I’d seen both of them before in their previous matches, but they stuck out to me now. Especially David with his flat hair shaved at the sides, twisting ram-like horns and thick tail that ended in a spade. His skin was a light red which was interesting, most tieflings have it darker, along with their eyes which often emit a more pronounced a yellow, muted gleam.

“Here we go.” Meg mutters as lights turn on, her shadow reappearing.

I make sure she notices me dart into it with a friendly wave. She waves back discreetly and with a smile.

The match starts with the announcer yelling ‘go’ in his booming voice and the two rush each other, fighting with everything they have.

I watch David bash his horns into the other man’s face repeatedly, on other occasions he pulled his tail behind the other man’s knee, jerking him forwards and bringing them off balance.

He pulled all these tricks more than once, I could practically feel the rage boiling off of him as he licked the blood off his hand, tossing the broken cleric down to the floor after the usual ten minutes.

“That was harsh.” Meg whispers to Jake.

“Yeah, the guy could’ve just hit him a few times then stopped.” Jake agrees, “instead he beat him to kingdom come!”

“It’s kinda hot though.” She chuckles.

“Thomas.”

“You wouldn’t wanna get pummelled by him?”

She didn’t receive an answer but instead a smug and dirty look as Jake went back to watching the game.

“Just like that my dear onlookers, we have ourselves another winner!” The thaumaturgy announces, handing David the key with one hand and holding up the other to declare him winner.

Hearty cheers fill the arena as David breaks away from the thaumaturgy.

“Now, we go to the opens! One of you audience members can fight our champion for a small pocket of gold!” The thaumaturgy announces, Jake and Meg’s eyes widening in shock. “No glory if you lose though.”

“Y’know screw that!” David yells before the thaumaturgy can speak again, “Forget the gold, I’ll bet the damn key!” He yells in a victorious stupor.

His accent was clearly native to the angelic aisle, western probably.

This time I start to hear hushed whispers, mostly to the effect of disbelief and fear. Even the thaumaturgy displayed a look of slight panic.

Most of the whispers debated the situation’s reality, trying to figure out what was going on. I’d probably be first to say a stunt like this was just that, a stunt, but the look on the announcer’s face tells me he was as shocked as us.

“No one? I thought you’se was a fightin’ city!” He taunts.

After that comment Meg stands, drawing the attention of everyone in the small stadium. “I’ll take you on.”

He grins, widely with a mischievous undertone as she begins walking up to the cage with an intimidating gait.

She quickly darts to look at me, her shadow. I give her a subtle thumbs-up and go back to letting my magic mirror her movements.

She’s let into the ring by the thaumaturgy hesitantly, he whispers to her something along the lines of cleaning up the blood as he leaves the area once more.

“I suppose we have a taker!” He announces, “And for stakes such as these! We’re truly in for a show, aren’t we?”

“I ain’t gonna go easy on ye, just ‘coz yer a lady, a’right luv?” David taunts, his voice muffled over the crowd.

“I wasn’t counting on it.” Meg snarls back.

“Fight!” The announcer blows the horn, signalling the match’s start.

Meg makes the first move, getting close to David and hooking the back of his ankle with her own. Before she can pull him off balance he brings his elbow to her chest, forcing her to instead swing her free foot around to avoid getting toppled by the devil.

Both of them pause to gather themselves, eyeing one another up before David runs at Meg with his horns bared, ready to ram her. She dodges just in time, pushing him the ground as he speeds past her and pinning him to the ground.

“Listen, that key is more valuable than you realise. Give it to me easy and I’ll make sure you’re compensated.” She whispers in his ear, him returning the favour by hitting the inside of her elbow and forcing her to buckle, giving him time to climb on her in return.

“I thought so, you lot didn’t think learn ‘bout ye?” He whispers back in an equally hushed tone. “Whatcha givin’ me for handin’ it oveh?”

I see his grip was loose so she could have more space to wriggle. Meg knees the guy in the stomach, taking the time he’s stunned to create some distance between the two.

“We can get you out of the city and wipe your criminal record.” She mutters, rushing him as he takes a defensive stance, “We’ll pay you too.”

“I can leave the city whenever I wan’.” He grabs her shoulders, throwing her to the ground.

“Can you really? The captain hates your guts so much she wants you on trial to be killed.” Meg lies, he was wanted but not the be trailled for death.

“You was sent by the elf bitch?” He lets Meg grab his arm and knee him again, this time in the chest. “Eastern lass dun’t know when she should leave us all be.”

“I was sent by her, but she’s so bratty.” Meg says honestly, grabbing David’s horn and using it to slam his face into the ground. “We don’t have to turn you over, we don’t even have to get you out of the city, we can just get you some money and take the key.”

“Honestly though, this place got too many of them holy people. I’d leave wit ye guys if ye could get me out, key n’ all.” He whispers, slamming his tail over Meg’s face and getting back out of her grasp.

“So you’ll give us the key?”

“If ya get me outta here.” He rushes her once more, this time going for her legs. “Just lemme beatche.”

“Done.” Meg nods, letting David topple her and mount her from behind to keep her in place.

She hits the ground thrice with her right fist, citing a yield. The crowd erupting in cheers.

“That was more entertaining than it should’ve been, well done young lady.” The Thaumaturgy congratulates.

“Am I off now?” David asks into the air, “I’m off now.”

He grabs Meg by the waist, pulling her to one of the entrance ways with a victorious smile.

Soon the two were alone (or as alone as was possible with me present) in a small, furnished side room.

David lets her go and sits down on one of the seats with a plop, producing the key he had stored in his pocket earlier.

“I hope you weren’t planning on sleeping with me now.” Meg takes a seat of her own, crossing her legs.

He laughs at her in response, “No luv, you ain’t me type.”

“Not into orcs?” She raises an eyebrow.

He shrugs in response, letting silence fall between the two.

Meg sighs, breaking the newly formed layer of ice, “Fairfield, I think you deserve a break.”

I nod, gathering the shadows at her feet and returning to the overworld. “If I’m being honest, I was starting to get way too antsy.”

David leaps back into his chair in shock, “Oi, ye lil’ demon! Was you there the ‘ole time?”

“Yeah, I was in her shadow.” I turn to face him. “I was planning on rigging the fight for her, I’m glad I didn’t need to.”

“Yeah, you was real fun, luv.” He laughs at Meg. “I’m King by the way, David King.”

“Megan Thomas, or just Meg.” She shrugs.

“Fairfield, but you knew that.”

“If you was there the ‘ole time, d’ye know ‘bout the deal we struck?” He asks, looking from me to Meg.

“Yeah, I have good hearing on the otherside. You were going to give us the key for safe passage out of here?”

“Yeah well I changed me mind.” He leans back into the chair more.

I stiffen, pulling my hand into my cloak to reach for my dagger, unsure of David’s next move.

“You lot seem like top adventurers! I ‘aven’t been outta Heilig since I got ‘ere like three years ago or summin’.” He leans forwards excited. “And since I got th’ key, I make the demands.”

“I already said we’ll get you out of the city.” Meg scowls.

“I know, I mean I wanna go further than just Andrum or wherever you was plannin’ on droppin’ me.”

“So you just wanna adventure with us?” I ask, relaxing a bit although my hand was still on the knife.

“Yeah! Get out n’ see the world!” He stands with a smile, “Plus, y’could use me!”

“We have Thomas, why do we need another fighter?” I ask, looking from him to Meg.

“Fighter? Nah mate, I’m a barbarian! The ancestral wrath kind.” He juts a thumb into his chest. “Even the most outta touch tieflings got magics.”

“Dwight, if we want this guy to co-operate, we need to give in.” Meg shakes her head, whispering to me.

“I can’t make a decision like that, we have three more people in the party.” I whisper back.

Meg shoots me a glare, “We’d love to have you join us, King.”

“Great! Let’s go then, no time to waste.” He walks over to a wall of cupboards, pulling out armour from one of them as he hastily equips it.

“Thomas! What’re you doing?!” I whisper shout, feeling everything fall apart.

“Getting the key for you, we don’t have to conform with anything we say unless it comes from Jake.” Meg whisper shouts back.

“Are you saying we just take the key and run?” I ask bewildered.

“No.” She retorts. “But, we could.”

I glare at her before going to look at David again. He had metal vambraces and greaves along his right side, leaving his left free of armour. He was wearing the pants from before and still hadn’t put on a shirt, instead wearing leather straps up and down his torso to hold weapons and other items.

From what I could see he was carrying a single dagger as a side-arm on top of the two axes he had either side of his belt, engraved in a language I couldn’t place, probably infernal given the context.

He leads us out of the area once we’re done, allowing me to take charge when we’re in the clear in order to find the others. We quickly do so, finding Ace and Jake near the entrance way with Claudette at their feet, once they see us they walk out the exit so we could chat elsewhere.

“Impressive show you have there, kid.” Ace smiles once we were in private.

“I was holdin’ back to be frank.” David shrugs.

“Beating a man’s face in is ‘holdin’ back’?” Jake mimics him.

“Well he ain’t dead is he, luv?” David retorts.

“Whatever, do you have the key?” He turns his focus to me.

“King does, he’ll give it to us when we leave the city.” I point to the key fastened to one of David’s straps.

“Does that make King our new Visconti?” Jake jokes.

“You have to try harder than that if you wanna replace me.” Ace laughs.

“Why am I replacin’ ye?” He asks confused.

“He’s from Ondskab, the guy who helped us get the other key.” Meg explains.

“Yeah, they’re leaving me at Kvan, I’m just along for the ride until we get there.” Ace shrugs.

“Kvan? Ain’t that uh, west’a here?” David thinks for a moment, drawing a compass in the air with his fingers.

“Yup, Andrum and Eldur are in the way though.” I confirm. “Although I’m not certain, Claudette’s the closest thing we have to a navigator.”

“Whossat?” David asks, looking around.

“The cat.” Jake points to the black puddle, trying to bat at David’s tail that he’d been moving absentmindedly.

He shoos her angrily, bringing the tail closer to his arm. “Are ye jokin’?”

“Nope, that’s our nav!” Ace smirks, as he looks around the party his eyes beg us all not to tell him the truth for his own amusement.

“C’mon, Claude.” Meg coos, scooping her up into her arms as she starts heading back to the wagon with us following behind.

“A’right then?”


	6. Heilig (Intermission)

“I gotta ask, is you related to the captain?” David asks Jake, adjusting some items of armour as we walk through more Germanic country side.

It was mid-morning, early noon and I was ready to sleep again. I couldn’t lie however, having the sun on me felt great even if it made me powerless.

I’d spent way too much time under in Heilig and even with the spell I felt strained and jumpy, but I suppose my disposition isn’t all that suited to power like this.

“Same continent, different country.” Jake shrugs, picking at his sleeve as he wasn’t wearing armour.

“So like, you’se got different languages?”

“Yeah, like how all the Germanic provinces have different languages.”

“Oh yeah.” David nods like he was interested, and maybe he was.

David was an interesting person to have around, he clicked with Meg instantly as her brutish partner in crime, and it seemed like him and Jake were becoming a lot closer than I thought they’d ever be.

Close enough that I believe Jake is rethinking his unwritten vow of chastity.

Once we passed Andrum on the first night from Heilig, he handed me the key to put on my medallion with a smile, I’m happy things worked out peacefully for everyone’s sake.

“I think you two are the only ones that aren’t from the far, far west.” Ace points at David and Jake. “You’re native and you’re from the east.”

“And where are you from?” I ask, his accent sure as hell sounded Germanic, southern Germanic sure, but still Germanic.

“South-west.” He replies, “The far south west by the way.”

“So Brazilia?” Meg asks, looking over to our map.

“Argentina.” He corrects.

“Wow, what were you doing in Ondskab then?” Jake asks.

“Return to your roots type thing. Argentina was boring.” Ace stretches as we continue to walk alongside Claudette, now as a horse.

Of course, the transformation caught David off guard and he, quite understandably, paniced the first time he witnessed the transformation.

“In Ondskab? Ye don’t seem like an Ondskab man, ain’t got the accent, y’know?” David remarks.

“I was born in Italia and lived there as a boy. I took a ship to the far west and headed south from there until I was in Argentina.” Ace briefly tells us his life story, “spent twenty years there before moving back to Italia and I’ve been here for about three years now.”

“So you’ve been everywhere then.” Meg nods, impressed.

“I haven’t been east at all, that way’s mostly for traders and merchants.” Ace brushes her off.

“Silk road?” I throw out.

“That’s the one.” He clicks his fingers having them land in a point directed at me.

We hear the wagon stop and Claudette bray in discontent making our chatter stop immediately.

I look to the others to see them as perplexed and tense as I am, some even readying weapons when we hear voices nearby.

I walk to Claude’s right side as we were all on her left to try and figure out what was happening.

We aren’t normally too phased by voices on the road, but Claudette seemed to be scared, and something felt off.

My suspicions are confirmed when we see an overturned cart a hundred meters down the road, the shouting coming from a group of men and women, but they didn’t seem to be arguing amongst themselves.

We get closer and see a group of ten or so people brandishing weapons up against a very large dragonborn male.

Immediately, the situation felt very off.

“The first thing that comes to mind is ‘how the hell has that thing not killed anyone yet?’.” I hear Meg whisper in my ear, voicing my thoughts I turn to see everyone had moved to the right side of Claudette as well to see the action.

“That is one overgrown lizard man.” Ace jokes, his tone just as low.

Our presence is soon noticed by the nine or ten people who soon have bows pointed in our direction.

“If Claude wasn’t to fight it’d be two on one.” Meg points out.

“We c’n manage ‘at, surely.” David grins.

“Are you sure you wanna fight?” I ask, looking around at my companions, most of them now brandishing weapons.

“I’m not in armour, but let’s be real, neither are they.” Jake shrugs, falling behind to get his shield and flail from the back of the wagon, the gold and purple weaponry shimmering in the daylight.

“It’s a little too bright out, but I should still be able to beat up some kids.” Ace laughs, wiping one of his knives of his tunic.

It is too bright for me to slip, Ace shouldn’t have any problems but I likely will. I reach for one of my misty reagents with my left hand, dangling it at my side as I brandish my dagger.

“It looks like they have exactly half on ranged and half on melee.” Meg points out, thinking of a plan. “Park and King take two of the ones with bows, Visconti and I will handle close quarters combat; Fairfield, you take the two stragglers.”

“Sounds good.” David grins, “Ready t’ clock sum ‘eads, luv?”

Jake smirks at his mention, shifting his flail further into his right hand. “I suppose.”

“What about the dragonborn?” Ace asks.

“We’ll just have to hope he doesn’t get in the way.” I shrug.

“We all ready?” Meg asks, reaching for her sword.

“Sure, let’s dodge some arrows.” Ace raises his left hand clicking his fingers, a pale glisten falling over him before he’s all but a shimmer in the daylight.

The bandits take a few steps back, noticing a party of five (plus Claudette) suddenly becoming a party of four. I fully expect them to fire arrows any moment, but every second that passes seems to throw them off their game even more.

A scream splits the air as one of the women brandishing swords suddenly has a knife in her back, Ace pulling her towards him more and taking a step sideways so the volley of arrows beginning to head his way hit the poor woman instead of him.

I watch one of the arrows graze his upper arm, but I doubt it did anything more than rip fabric.

Ace clicks his fingers again, slinking back into a state of invisibility.

The bandits don’t appear to be relenting however, the now nine or so swinging at the air wildly hoping to hit Ace, it was in fact rather comical.

Meg and David rush in after the first death, their weapons drawn. They split once they approach the group, taking on their elected enemies as Jake and I rush in behind them.

I see Meg stun one of the men before performing a sweeping slice across his chest to fell him.

David disarms one of the bowmen, thumping him to the ground to finish the job.

I watch another bow wielder take a shot at David, only to be stopped by Jake and his shield. I hear David express his gratitude and Jake in turn express the nearest thing to a blush I think I’ve ever seen from him.

I pop the cork to the misty reagent with my dagger, pouring the contents on the ground to darken the surrounding area, my cloak reddening from the seal.

I slip into the realm, marking two of the bandits by sprouting black claws from the ground to bind them. I decide to finish the axe user first, appearing next to him and placing my legs either side of his body.

I bring my dagger down into his stomach, twisting it as I remove it and wiping it on my sleeve before walking over to the girl.

I do the same motion, sitting on top of her and preparing to run my knife across her throat instead.

I look over my shoulder just in time to see a pillar of light descend from the sky to smite what’s below. Unfortunately said pillar of light burns away most of my fog, leaving me very open in the bright light.

I glare at Jake who pauses to give me an apologetic smile, walking towards me, first stepping over a charred woman’s body.

As I look around further I realise this woman was the only one left alive, everyone else already having disposed of their allocated bandits and performing various cleaning motions to rid their weapons of blood and other parts of person.

I loosen the grip on my dagger when I hear an unfamiliar voice speak from behind me. “I hope you’ve all had fun killing redeemable men and women.”

The dragonborn walks over to me in large strides, grabbing the back of my neck and lifting me into the air like a ragdoll.

I see the red of my cloak fade back to blue, my legs dangling a little less than one foot off the ground.

“Release her.” He commands, the booming voice holding no punches. I try to turn around to see what my party members were doing now but to no avail.

I raise my left hand as my right was still holding my blade. I claw my fingers and thrust them into the floor, releasing the woman from her dark shackles.

She crawls back in fear, although the fear was unlikely for me.

“She’s gonna run away now.” I choke out.

“That’s fine.” He deadpans, letting me drop to the floor.

I land harshly ankles first, forcing me to lie there for a bit in view of my allies.

Sure enough I was correct, the girl turning heel and running as fast as she could manage into the hills.

Meg reaches my side, helping me up. “Are you okay, Fairfield?”

“Are you o—you’re asking him?!” The dragonborn yells angrily. “You’re really asking the shadowdancer if he’s hurt.”

The dragonborn’s accent was interesting to say the least, somewhere African I’d place it although I’m not sure.

“Oi, ye did drop‘im petty ‘ard.” David defends her.

“He—you all massacred a group of young, misguided souls!” The dragonborn moves in front of David, only just clearing him in height.

His gold scales were tinted with brown, likely from age and dirt or just natural hue.

“They were about to kill you.” Ace looks the dragonborn up and down, clutching his arm pained. Maybe that arrow hit a little closer to his body than I first thought.

“I had it all under control!” He holds his head high.

“You were being robbed out your ass and you claim you ‘had it all under control’?” Claudette joins the party, her posture shedding leaves from her various items of clothing as she walks.

“They were just misguided youths! I was trying to help them.” He stutters out.

“Misguided youths who shot Visconti in the arm.” Jake points out.

“I’m assuming Visconti is the rogue who stabbed that girl in the back before using her as a meat shield.” He turns to Ace, glaring at him as he makes the connection.

“Even I’ll admit he has a point there.” Ace turns to us all, shrugging with only his right arm.

Jake shuffles over to Ace, placing a hand on the wound healing it after a few seconds, only leaving a small amount of blood and a tear where the arrow entered his arm.

“You’re a holy man?” The dragonborn asks him, “I thought you might have been a fighter with arcane prowess by the pillar of fire, but I suppose I should have identified it as a clerical spell.”

“Yeah, I’m a paladin.” Jake introduces himself. “The name’s Park by the way.”

“Adam Francis of Kvan.” The dragonborn smiles.

“Could have just said, y’know, Francis.” Meg says to herself.

“So, Adam.” Claudette claps her hands, assessing the damage. “I think my friends have been a little too violent with you and your situation. How would you like to accompany us back to Kvan?”

Her words sow silence as we look around at each other awkwardly. I see Meg kick one of the bodies idly as if to remind us they were still there.

“I—uh, lass, that ain’t—uhm." David stutters, breaking the silence.

She glares at him to shut up.

“That’s a great idea, Claudette!” I agree with her through gritted teeth.

“It is?” Ace furrows his brows.

No.

“Yeah!” I strain, “We didn’t do right by ol’ Francis here, it’s only fair.”

“I knew you’d see it that way.” Claude smiles, jumping into my arms.

Jake glares at me, “So you just want into her pants.” He whispers under his breath.

Although that was nipping at the back of my mind, I mainly didn’t want to make an enemy with a very tall, very strong and very angry dragonborn cleric.

We’d only gotten out of Heilig by the hair of our chins, so it made no sense to anger someone who was clearly coming from the same direction.

The last thing we need is Jake’s crazy ex-fiancée tracking us down so pissing anyone off even remotely related to her was extremely unwise.

Thankfully Ace and I were the only ones to hear him with Meg and David looking into space blankly.

“She isn’t even wearing pants, plus you’re one to judge.” Ace mentions.

“What’s that meant to mean.” He looks back to Ace, talking in the same hushed tone.

“It’s rather clear you want to sleep with the tiefling.” Adam butts in, talking at the same frequency. “just as its clear you never took an oath of celibacy.”

“And I suppose you did then?” He glares, failing to confirm or deny anything.

Adam instead gives him a toothy grin, showing clean but not shiny fangs.

I hear Ace begin to giggle wildly, clearly humoured by this development. “You little draconic—I agree with Fairfield, we need to take you with us.”

“After you come to that conclusion, I hope you don’t think less of me for my disposition.” Jake glares at Adam.

“Love is love, contrary to some other beliefs.” He shrugs back, “I don’t think less of you for such a thing.”

I notice Claudette smile, letting go of me and walking over to chat with Adam, Ace and Jake who seemed more relaxed by Adam’s teachings. I can only be happy he’s distracted now because Meg and David’s conversation had devolved into childish jokes about sleeping with Adam.

“I bet it has scales.” Meg snickers, biting her lip.

“Yeah, but not all th’ way.” David fights back a giggle.

“Th-Think he can summon them on command?” She stutters in between giggles.

“Yeah but—” David has to stop himself buckling with laughter, his tail wrapped around his waist. “B-but-but he dudn’t have control over it, so it goes of randomly.”

“Like a, cursed magic sword?” Meg draws the connection.

That comment was the last one he could handle before I see him devolve into giggles, his tail hitting on the floor to a beat.

When he recovers the party except Meg and I were giving him concerned looks, making him fall into another fit of laughter.

“Are you okay, King?” Claudette asks concerned.

“Yeah, yeah I’m a’right.” He chokes out.

“Great, because I’ve decided Adam’s coming with us!” Claudette smiles innocently. “After you thought it prudent to massacre his assailants.”

“We, it was a group effort!” Jake protests.

Claude glares at him, “nope, this is all on you lot.”

“That is fair I suppose.” Meg shrugs.

“You aren’t meant to agree with her, Meg.” Ace scolds her.

“Well I for one accept any form of repentance from you little people.” Adam smiles.

“Little? I ain’t much shorter than you is, mate.” David folds his arms, recovered from the laughter.

“I’m an average height.” I hold my hand to my head, taking it off to preserve measurements like it’d do something worthwhile.

“Keep telling yourself that, kid.” Ace jokes, kneeling down to look over one of the bodies, a man wearing relatively heavy armour.

He lifts two purses from the corpse, tugging the binding loose from one and counting the coins inside.

Adam looks down on him as he transfers the contents of the lesser purse to his own and fastening the greater one to his belt.

“I swear I don’t want you anywhere near me.” He informs Ace who shrugs, standing up again now with full pockets.

“I mean, do you want some?” He asks, looking to Adam’s overturned cart.

“The larger purse was mine.” Adam scowls, stretching his hand to ask for the item.

Ace hands him the larger pouch of gold he looted form the dead man without hassle. “Are you and Jake sending these souls off or are we just leaving.”

“They’ve already departed by this point, surely.” Claudette scoffs.

“I might say a prayer for them on our journey to Kvan.” Adam sighs, walking to the wreckage and crouching, clearly looking for something.

I notice a dead horse at the head of the wagon, probably why Claudette offered to take him with us in the first place.

I’m kind of impressed I didn’t notice beforehand, what with how big horses are and all.

Adam resurfaces holding a holy icon in one hand and a Warhammer in the other, nodding at us to return to the wagon.

“How long have we been travelling?” Meg asks.

“It’s noon at the moment and we’re quite a few hours away from Erdboden, the next town.” Claudette calculates the sun’s position then looks over to the hills we were yet to clear.

“You say a few hours, I thought Erdboden was at least a half-day away.” Jake remarks, folding his arms.

“It was, we made good progress coming from Andrum.” Claudette corrects him, “We left very early in the morning and we haven’t stopped all day, save this kerfuffle.”

“Yeah, we crossed a bridge about an hour ago we said we’d pass late afternoon.” Ace comments. “There are only two bridges between Andrum and Erdboden and I suppose we’ve crossed that amount.”

“Yeah, one bridge out of Andrum, the other we were planning on making a safety camp.” I recall.

“So do you think we can get to Erdboden before nightfall?” Adam asks, scratching his chin.

“I don’t think we can, not realistically.” I shake my head. “large groups tend to move slower, but even then we can reach Erdboden before next morning provided we don’t camp as the night falls.”

“Are you suggesting we march in the dark?” Jake scoffs.

“Can’t you summon light?” Meg shakes her head.

“Yeah, not very well.” He defends himself.

“I can.” Adam pipes up, “most of us clerical types can. My light would be more powerful than Park’s, but I still wouldn’t be able to light the way without him.”

“We could work together.” Jake shrugs, “since light summoning is a clerical cantrip we should be able to illuminate quite a bit.”

“So we walk ‘til we reach Erdboden, regardless of ‘ow dark it gets?” David asks for clarification.

“Or until we feel we can’t continue casting.” Adam nods.

“That makes sense.” Meg mimics his gesture unknowingly.

“I suppose we should head out then if we only have three or four more hours of sunlight.” Ace stretches his newly restored arm, making his way back to the wagon with many of us behind him.

“Jake, you owe me a mystical foggy morning.” I joke.

“What’re you on about?” He looks at me puzzled.

“From the fog you chased away with that pillar, I could’ve scooped it back up but now I need to pull some strings.” I laugh. “I should be lucky I didn’t take Kenneth’s advice and hurl the bottle into the fray.”

“Who’s Kenneth?”

“Don’t worry.” I shake my head.

“Can’t you just fill your bottle up in the regular fog?”

“I mean, yeah, but then I’d have to curse it.” I shrug. “I was just joking, it isn’t going to be a hassle, just an inconvenience.”

He nods, throwing his flail and shield to the wagon as we hear Claudette change.

Normally you’d learn to look away rather quickly once you see the first bones shift in her body. She mentioned it to us three when we first met and we’d told Ace not to look ahead of time, of course we also decided not to tell poor David, but we just forgot to mention it to Adam.

Adam seemed interested however as he watched her body alter in unspeakable ways, examining her every move with a studious interest.

“Stop lookin’ at ‘er body, y’perv.” David punches Adam in the arm playfully, making sure to keep averting his eyes as he does so.

“I am definitely not turned on by druidic change and I think I’d prefer cursing a man that is.” Adam laughs, patting Claudette’s mane when she’s finished her transformation.

Adam’s comment made me and the others giggle a bit as I strap Claudette into the wagon, making sure not to snag my cloak.

“I thought ‘love is love’?” Jake pokes, quoting Adam from earlier.

“It isn’t for the horse, surely!” Adam laughs, taking Jake’s comment for the joke it was.

“Tell ‘at t’ Fairfield.” David butts in, pointing at me with a mischievous grin. “He likes bonin’ the horses!”

“Only Claude!” I spit, realising my poor choice in wording. “Wait, oh by Irrsinn let me take that one back.”

I turn beet red when Meg falls off the kart from laughing so hard and Ace bites his hand to stop himself choking on his own laughter.

“I—I’m not even sleeping with Claude, I…” I stutter more and more.

I see Jake clinging onto David so he doesn’t fall to the ground in giggles at my expense, even Adam was finding my situation hysterical.

“I wouldn’t dare touch a horse that way, I meant just Claude in general.” I whimper into my own grave.

I hear Claudette from behind me do the closest thing a horse could to a laugh, beating her hoof to the ground.

“We’re wasting time here.” Jake recovers, still holding on to David. “We should start moving.”


	7. Kvan (Part 1)

“This is it?” Meg frowns, “For real?”

“I’d say.” David hugs himself, looking at his feet as he talked to her. “I realise you lot can’t afford me ‘ere”

“What do you mean?” Jake takes his hand, meeting his eyes.

“I mean this key shit is way too ominous!” David exclaims, “You lot’re on a quest and I don’t think I can interfere with it.”

“You aren’t interfering with anything.” Claudette places her hands on her hips.

“I’m interferin’ in the business of Gods!”

“David, what did you tell me last night?” Jake asks him rather rhetorically, using his first name to show how annoyed he was.

“I’m too scared to kill m’self, so I’m waitin’ for another man t’ do it for me.” David taps his foot. “What’s yer point?”

“After Fairfield gets all three keys, something’s gonna happen.” Meg answers for him, “we don’t know what. But it’ll be bad.”

“What she’s trying to say, is we’ll need all the help we can get.” I sigh, my eyes darting to Ace and Adam who were being silent despite the circumstances. “So what’s your point, King? You don’t want to interfere?”

“It’s more than that.” He breaks away from Jake’s grasp, turning away. “I don’t think—what yer doin’, it scares me.”

I feel all of us look around, waiting for him to continue.

“Yer askin’ me to help you, help you mess with th’ gods.” He rubs his face with his hands, “I never wanted to feel attached to you, any of you.”

“Is this just about leaving us?” Claudette shakes her head in disbelief.

“It’s about staying.” Ace corrects her, breaking his silence and waning the attention off David.

“Back in Heilig, before we met King, Park said he trusted me with his life.” Ace begins, “It shouldn’t have, but it meant a lot to me. Mainly because no one has ever told me the same thing.”

“He was in the heat of the moment and he had no idea I was behind him, but he still mentioned me.” Ace continues. “That and every other mention of my name, every smile from Thomas, every time Claude felt comfortable around me, every instance I related to Fairfield and his powers.”

“Made you feel wanted.” Adam nods, “I was going to leave this party the second I could, and I still might, but I can’t deny the fact you’re all family.”

“Are you staying, Adam?” Meg asks, a hopeful gleam in her eyes.

“I think I will.” He nods, smiling. “I must agree with King, if it takes a brave man to kill himself, I am happy being a coward.”

Meg jumps to him, squeezing him with all her might lovingly, clearly happy with the news.

“And Visconti?” I look to him.

“I can’t leave you guys, not now.” He replies. “I was planning on booking it when we got to Kvan but every little conversation, every small act of kindness and I suddenly don’t wanna be alone anymore.”

“I was thinking a’ what to say when I left.” David shakes his head. “anything from ‘I hope I meet ye soon’ to ‘I’m glad it’s over’. But I ain’t glad it’s over, not even slightly.”

“It doesn’t have to be over.” I tell him, “this doesn’t have to be the end, it isn’t for Ace or Adam.”

“I dunno if I want it to be the end or not!” David yells. “I don’t wanna anger no damn gods, but I love all a’ ye.”

“Ye’ve made me the closest t’ happy in a long time.”

Silence fell after that, silence for the situation, and I suppose silence for David.

“It was Thomas, Claude, Park and me.” I start, “It was supposed to be just us, but now I don’t think I could see things returning to the way they were before Ondskab.”

“Me neither.” Meg hugs herself. “The reason I don’t have an orcish name is because I don’t have a father, he slept with my mother and then left. I don’t even know if it was consensual. Then my mother fell sick and I didn’t know what I was doing so I just, left.”

Meg, picks at some loose leather on her tunic, her eyes pricking with tears. “She left me when I still needed her. I don’t want any of you to leave either.”

“I shouldn’t have ever signed the bargain,” I tap my foot. “I was a nobody before getting this power, but now, I—I don’t want to succumb to my patron. I think I would’ve become like the others without you guys, just bumbling messes and shells of people.”

“I don’t have much to say.” Claudette mumbles, “and I believe we’ve forgotten the whole purpose of this was to convince David of staying but…”

She looks over to me before she resumes, placing her hand around my arm. “I never thought I’d find love, I never thought it’d be with Dwight but, I love all of you, and seeing any of you leave now would break my heart.”

She sighs, “I know I haven’t been the most vocal person, or the most involved, but you have to realise that I’m attached to you all, I don’t want this to end either.”

“Do ye all really wan’ me’t stay?” David mutters.

We don’t say anything, just nod and look to the ground.

“It wouldn’t be the same, we know that.” Meg mumbles.

“To hell then?” Jake extends his arm, wanting David to shake it.

He waits for a second before pulling Jake into a hug. “I was born there, luv. Goin’ back’ll be fine w’ you lot.”

“Then let’s not keep the demon prince waiting.” I smirk, hugging Claudette briefly and leading the seven of us into Kvan’s open walled city centre.

Here we got no funny looks, no sideways glances and no hushed comments. Here we didn’t care however, we knew our mission was dire and to hesitate now may be fatal.

I still remember being called for the first time, meeting the others and talking about my patron’s desire for world domination. They wanted me for the sole purpose I was the only warlock they knew who hadn’t been completely corrupted by the entity’s hold.

The royals knew how to kill it, but they didn’t know how powerful it’d be and once I signed that waiver, I agreed I could die easily. So, I suppose it’s good we met these three men along the way or fighting it would be a lot more difficult.

Walking through Kvan was tense to say the least, even with the relaxed atmosphere and smiling faces, the optimism here didn’t seem to infect any one of us.

We were just going to walk to the cave, find the third key, and connect it to my cloak.

Then wait for the mayhem I suppose.

The cave itself was rumoured to be the gateway between this world and the various underworlds of patrons, making Kvan, the city on top of it, untouchable by religious factions through sheer fear of corruption.

It soon came into full view of us, including every stained rock and every waterlogged crevice.

Including the woman near the entrance with a half-cape draped over her left shoulder and a very ornate cuirass.

She seemed to be taking in the geology of the cave for whatever reason, only noticing us when we were within a few meters of her.

I watch her ignore us as we walk past her only to change her mind quickly, calling for our attention by tapping Adam on the shoulder as he was the closest to her.

“Dreadfully sorry my fellow adventurers, but I am in dire need of some… assistance.” She explains her situation vaguely.

I don’t know what was weirder, her extremely unnecessary formality, or the fact she’s even here in the first place. Does she even know of Kvan’s reputation?

“Care to elaborate? Or will you leave it at that?” Adam responds sharply, clearly with no intention of diverting our quest.

“Inside this cave is rumoured to be a beast of immense proportions, a horror that can’t be comprehended by mere mortals.” She begins to pace, winding this long story that frankly no one asked for, even though Adam technically did just that. “I’m hoping to be the first to document it, however…”

“You need us to protect you?” I finish her sentence, looking less than amused when I did.

“I can protect myself, mister elf.” She scoffs, “I just can’t do so whilst documenting a beast like this.”

“So, you just wanna follow us?” Meg folds her arms with a scowl.

“If that’s what you wish to call it.” The woman shrugs.

“How much charisma do you think you have?” Jake asks rhetorically under his breath.

“It isn’t about charisma my holy friend, it’s about confidence.” She corrects him in a rather condescending manner.

“And ye think yer confidence’ll make us fall ‘ead over ‘eels for ye?” David laughs, “We still got the power, lass.”

“Of course you do.” She places a hand of David’s shoulder empathetically. “Unfortunately, we’ve wasted too much time just chatting, so let’s head into the cave of wonders now!”

She struts to the front rows, taking my hand and leading us all into the cave much to my surprise.

“Hey! Wait a minute! You can’t just!” Claudette stutters, quickly following behind.

Ace chuckles as we all pace after her into the darkness. “Call me crazy, but I think I like her.”

“In five minutes she’s taken Fairfield’s leadership position and joined our group without any of us consenting.” Jake looks at him puzzled.

“Exactly! She knows how to use that confidence.” Ace remarks, following after us into the cave.

The further away light seems the more anxious I become. The feeling is lessened however when I hear the graceful light from behind me, I recall from last night as well.

The woman too clicks her fingers and sparks an orange flame covering the more useful half of her left arm, the light nowhere near as bright as the clerics’, but still bright enough to see by.

“I didn’t peg you for a wizard.” I state, feeling her grip on my hand loosen.

“I’m a sorcerer.” She corrects me, looking behind her to see everyone else still close behind. “but I have studied a little magic.”

Sorcerer? High-elves like me and her aren’t usually born with magic but more learn it through schooling and self-study. Even if we weren’t born spouting flames from our fingers, elves had a passive ability for magic.

Most of them did at least.

“That makes sense, you have the power but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work to bettering yourself.” I nod, looking around at the various rock formations around the cave, stalactites and stalagmites that threated to take us out if we lose our footing or hold out heads too high.

I wonder what this place looked like on the other side. It would likely be largely the same, but I gather the rocks would be difficult to crawl along. That and the fact slipping here is just plain unwise given the patrons lurking in each drip of water and each loose pebble I hear rocket across the room by someone’s foot.

Soon we reach the end of the cave and I see it, the chest we were looking for.

“Is that it?” Claude jogs to my side.

“Is it?” Meg looks at the box sideways.

Jake makes his way in front of the two women, kneeling beside the box and shooing me away. He runs his illuminated palms over the box’s surface, taking special note of every inch of it. “Petrified oak body, iridescent stone for the lining.”

“Is ‘at th’ last key?” David points to the key inserted into the box’s left most keyhole.

Jake pulls it out of the box, for a second I swear I can hear guttural whispers, pleading for him to put it back in. Either he didn’t hear, or he just ignores them and I’m not sure which scenario better fits his personality.

“Same bow and shank design as the other keys, green in colour even though it’s still iridescent.” He judges, twirling the key around his forefinger.

When I first walked into that war hall around a month ago to meet my companions, I didn’t understand they all possessed direct competence for the task at hand. Jake’s past allowed him to easily identify and analyse artefacts, Claudette’s affinity for nature meant she could fix our wounds easily and her motherly ways kept us from breaking more than we already did, Meg’s sheer strength and zeal made her the perfect bodyguard, not as submissive yet still maintaining enough loyalty to her cause to keep trust invested in her.

“Hand me the other keys, Fairfield.” Jake instructs, watching me fumble with my clasp in an attempt to get the keys off my cloak.

I eventually manage to hand them to him one by one much to everyone else’s tested patience.

Jake begins inserting the keys to the chest, shuffling to the side of the box and grasping the left most key, Kvan’s. “Hey you, elf, grab the middle one.”

The woman looks slightly offended by the way he called after her. “I have a name.”

“Care to share?” Claudette folds her arms, clearly annoyed.

“Jane Romero.” She places her hands to her hips, drawing out every syllable of her name in an annoyed tone.

“Romero?” Jake calls for her attention, giving a smile that doesn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Yes?”

“Grab the middle one.” He instructs firmly.

She grabs it without losing eye contact, clearly still irritated.

“Francis grab the far right.” He turns to Adam who does as he’s told, grabbing the right-hand key with his large scaled hand, grasping the hilt with his claws instead of his actual fingers so Jane could still grasp her own key.

I’d only half forgotten about the specifics of the opening ritual I had divulged to Jake almost a month before.

Kvan, the city of neutrality requires the touch of mortal man who brings steadfast order. It just meant a human, but the way it was phrased meant a male priest was the best bet, but in reality even that Mashtyx girl could probably use the key.

Heilig, the city of light requires the grace of ever young flesh, and elegantly aged mind who preserves the past and adds to the future. It was honestly a weirder way of saying elf, but I suppose elves are weird anyway. Originally, we were going to have Claudette turn that key, but a high-elf fits the bill a little better than her, even though it likely didn’t matter.

Ondskab, the city of murk requires a beast of many bloods to carry the corruption accumulated by the sins of many. Calling Adam a beast and a sinner was frankly rather mean, not to mention wildly inaccurate. The key just called for someone stuck between two races. We were going to use Meg for that key, but I suppose Adam being stuck between human and literal dragon was a little more intimidating than Meg, without any offence meant of course.

“Turn them to your right on three.” Meg holds up a fist. “one,”

I’m not sure what we were readying for, but whatever it was everyone was preparing for a fight, mentally at least.

“two,”

For a task as mundane as turning a key in a lock, there sure was a lot of tension surrounding our party of now eight.

“three.”

Keys turn in locks synchronised, opening the box to reveal nothing but more of the same petrified oak lining the insides.

“Is it meant to be empty?” Ace thinks aloud.

“Maybe summin’ already took whatever was there?” David theorises.

“With what keys?” Jake asks him like he was dumb.

“Maybe some rogues got here before us.” I shrug.

“It shouldn’t matter what was in the chest, why is there a chest here in the first place?” Jane throws her hands to the side.

“It definitely does matter, maybe inside was the apparatus to find the patron’s realm.” Adam scolds her.

“Or maybe we can’t see what we need to see.” Claudette says, low and thoughtful.

“I’m sorry, what?” Meg raises an eyebrow.

“She’s saying maybe there’s more to this chest than on this plane of existence.” Jake catches on.

“You want me to see if there’s anything on the other side?” I ask, looking the chest over, it didn’t seem to be some kind of portal or anything.

“I mean, this is th’ ‘ome of yer… God? Do I say God?” David questions, only adding to confusion.

“Hold on, I don’t necessarily have to shift, I can just read the room.” I offer, signalling the others to move away from the chest. “Like how I located Visconti back in Ondskab.”

“With that weird clawed hand thing?” Meg asks, trying to re-enact my stance.

“Yup.” I nod, examining the room better. “It’s called ‘Bond’, it allows me to see people and things and just anything out of sight.”

“Do you think it can pick up anything weird with the chest?” Jane kicks it twice with low force, moving it back about a centimeter.

“In theory.” I put my foot behind me, shifting weight onto the ball of my front foot, closing my eyes and clawing my hands.

Some of the Entity’s patrons used their channelling to hear better like Sally, and those of us who use the power to see what usually cannot be seen like me and Philip among others.

I begin to feel the others around me, soon able to see them clearly with my eyes still closed.

I turn my head to where I think the chest is, seeing something under what I presume is the floor. Some form of pulsating energy, warranting further investigation.

I dive under the earth, trying to get a better look at the strange energy.

I daren’t open my eyes here for fear of what’ll happen if I do. Mostly it’s just a stinging sensation and loss of focus but this close to the source, I can’t afford to surrender any power.

Seeing the auras under here was more than enough anyway.

I notice the mysterious energy comes from directly underneath the chest, as though the chest itself was covering the entrance to the tunnel further below into the realm of the patrons.

For fear I couldn’t hold much longer I resurface, opening my eyes to the dark of the cave and the blinding light of Adam’s projections.

“What did you see, Fairfield?” Meg was the first to speak, offering me a hand up which I take graciously.

“Under the chest.” I pant, still adjusting to the sudden light around me.

I hear shuffling behind me, turning to see Meg and Adam heaving the thing out of the way onto to have it fall into the hole below.

Adam quickly grabs Meg’s arm, pulling her over him so neither of them fell down the hole from the force they were exerting, lying there for a few moments in a mixture of shock and gratitude.

“That was close.” Ace remarks, looking down the hole himself.

“Are we really goin’ down ‘at?” David asks, slightly scared.

“One second.” Jake pushes Ace back from the hole.

Jake positions his hand above the hole, thrusting down with his fist and shooting light into the fray.

The light descends for a few seconds before dissipating into a magical nothingness.

“That isn’t meant to happen, surely.” Claudette ponders.

“It isn’t.” Adam hisses thoughtfully, getting out from under Meg and moving over to look down the hole himself. “Clerical light travels for miles before it dissipates.”

“If the legend’s correct, this hole’s a gateway to the underworld.” Jane explains, “The light must have hit the brink and it couldn’t go any further.”

“I think we should refrain from shooting more magic down the hole.” Meg folds her arms.

“We should jus’ jump instead.” David jokes.

“Y’know, that isn’t such a bad idea.” I kick a loose stone down the hole, waiting to hear it hit the floor, but it never does.

“Jumping?” Ace looks at me sideways.

“I mean, if we’re safe, sure.” I shrug, rolling my shoulders a few times.

“You’re volunteering to go first, then?” Meg says only half joking.

“I guess.” I whisper, settling my cloak on my shoulders a little better.

“Are you going to do that weird thing again?” Jane asks, “Like with the burrowing into the ground thing you did.”

“Only to break my fall.” I nod, folding my arms into the blue of my cloak. “I used too much power to find the hole itself.”

“I’m honestly a little amazed we didn’t think to move the box.” Adam scratches his scaly neck, looking into the chest and then the hole.

“’S not really summin’ ye’d think t’ do when faced with’n empty box, though.” David folds his arms, examining the box himself.

“Nevertheless…” Claudette peers down the hole, turning to me.

“Yeah.” I sigh, both feet moving closer to the hole’s edge.


	8. Kvan (Part 2)

I land harshly on both feet when I drop down the hole.

The drop itself lasted less than a second and only for as deep as I am tall, even though when Jake projected that light down the hole it seemed much longer.

My surroundings were… dark, to say the least.

As my eyes adjust to the new cave chamber I see it emanate something akin to iridescence, the same stone as the keys were cut from.

Above me was now a sky of dark reds, hellish observers flitting across its under-belly, keen to see what I was.

My vision was hazy and every step felt like I was marching with the force of giants, and although I shouldn’t stray from the others the temptation to walk forwards plagued me.

“Jump! It’s all good!” I holler back into the hole. “Bring the keys!”

At my command the others begin descending one by one until we were all standing in the underworld, wondering what happens next.

“I don’ remember ‘ell looking like this.” David whispers, his movement careful and slow.

Our voices echo here and half of me isn’t sure David was talking, it all seems so surreal.

“What next?” Ace asks, his voice booming around us even though he was speaking at a normal volume prompting everyone to cover their ringing ears.

“We talk quietly for starters.” Meg whispers, handing me one of the keys. “So we just summon the Entity now?”

“I guess.” I mumble, reaching for the last key which Claudette hands to me.

I take off my cloak, attaching all three keys to the medallion and once it starts to radiate power, I throw it forwards onto the ground just as rehearsed.

Immediately the ground below bellows and sputters, spider-like claws protruding from the stone, slamming into the surrounding landscape as the patron makes its presence known.

“Well then.” Jane pulls her cloak further over her shoulder.

“Not what you were expecting?” Adam laughs.

“Not in the slightest.” She draws her sword, the others following suit.

“Are you here for a fight?” The guttural whisper fills our minds, shaking our souls making a pit fall in my stomach and my heart clench with anxiety. “I am disappointed, my son.”

I draw my dagger quickly, holding it with both hands whilst shaking nervously.

“Mortal man does not want you here anymore.” I say in a normal voice, having it boom throughout the land as if I was yelling. “We’ve been hired to see you out.”

“Why are you interested in the wellbeing of mortals?” The whisper asks in a tone that implies it already knows the answer.

“Because it’s their world too.” Jake answers for me, his hands as shaky as mine yet his grip remained firm and steady.

“Of course it is.” The whisper hisses at Jake sarcastically. “You, a human can vouch for the elves and beasts in your company? You ravaged the land with your lust for production, agriculture and for your cities you moved mountains.”

Jake looks around to his company, realising he was the only full-blooded human present.

“And you, Park Ji-Hun, but you prefer Jake, yes? You who abandoned a fiancée and a kingdom for your selfish desires, you who broke an Oath of Crown and travelled west to start a new life.” The Entity tells us all his secrets as Jake trembles in fear. “Your fellowship didn’t know you were an Oathbreaker, did they?”

“I’m not an Oathbreaker, I—my, I still—but,” Jake stumbles over his words, clearly disoriented by the Entity’s reveal.

“All of you are keeping things from each other.” The whisper states. “I thought if you were to arrive here with the purpose of ending me, you would go about it without any secrets.”

“Okay, I’ve had enough.” Meg marches forwards, great-sword dragging along the ground with a scraping sound.

“You’ve had enough, Megan Tulmak? Or is it ‘Thomas’ now.” The whisper says, following with the most ominous laugh I’ve ever heard.

“It’s always been Thomas.” She scowls, bringing her great-sword over her head and slamming it down onto one of the claws, cutting it clean off.

An otherworldly, surprised squeal deafens us all as we run in to help Meg, more claws sprouting from the earth to meet us.

“You told them your father ran off once you were born, you know he wanted to take you with him.” The Entity’s whispers turn to snarls. “You wanted to be a human like your mother, you turned away from your ancestors. Where did that lead you?”

“If it led me here, I have no regrets.” Meg pants, parrying a claw with her blade as another attempts to skewer her from behind.

A flash of green darts to her side, leaves parting to show Claudette who promptly parries said claw with her quarterstaff.

“And you, pest.” It focuses on her as she deflects the claw with a fluid motion, darting back into the middle area with Meg at her side, both girls watching the other’s back. “You who spends most of her time obeying the command of her friends yet never complains, you secretly despise them for not seeing you as an equal. For all the instances they create a problem you are the one to clean up their mess. You don’t like playing mother, do you Morel?”

Claudette seethes at his words, picking a leaf off her dress, now bound at the belt for better mobility. “I don’t have to like it, but it’s my duty.”

“Is it? You don’t truly believe that do you, girl.” The whisper laughs again, more claws surrounding the duo.

I would run over to them, but I was still battling against a single claw with my dagger, stomping on the sharp end and hacking at the joint with as much force as possible.

Jake was only a few meters away from me, but he had his own share of claws to swing at. I was still sure if I needed help I’d receive it from him, but we can’t afford to be altruistic here.

I hear clicking fingers periodically in intervals of five seconds, turning for a moment to see Ace darting through hordes of claws, slashing them as best as he can at every chance with two of his long knives.

“You are aware I still see you, old one? Your roguish magics are useless against my greatness.” The Entity taunts Ace, tripping him with a claw. He quickly recovers, holding the knives in a more defensive position, meeting David as he walks backwards. “How is your family? Are they resting well? Are you still upset with yourself for putting them in that situation?”

Ace falters, allowing himself to be thrown onto the floor and attacked by one of the claws. He grabs onto its feathered sides, cutting his hands as he struggled against the patron.

“Your relentless gambling forced them into a state of decline, of depression.” The Entity hisses, “you only realised your mistake after your long suffering wife took her own life. Your children soon taken by those you owed money to for retribution.”

David quickly takes care of the claw with two successive slashes from his axes, the remaining arm burning at the cut.

“Do you think you’re special because your weapons stink of enchantments, infernal?” The Entity directs his attention to David. “I’m sure your ancestors would be so proud knowing you’ve fallen for a priest, the ones sworn to purge you off the land. What would your father say, King? The father who supported you through all of your endeavours, the father you left.”

Glowing oranges and reds follow David, the ribbons like silken rage radiating off of the barbarian. Ace collects himself behind the devil, steadying his weapons and returning to slashing the offending claws around us.

It was now I realise I had taken out three of these claws by myself without magic. I was still struggling however, I might need to absorb someone else’s power or I might lose myself here.

I hear a crack reverberate throughout the realm, followed by a scream ending in a sob. The scream didn’t seem as loud as normal talking, more like a normal cry for help. In fact it feels muffled in this realm compared to the whispers, like our focus was meant to be elsewhere.

My eyes dart to the source of the sound anyway and I see David doubled over, Ace protecting him whilst he was stunned.

David was clutching his right horn, the trademark twist stopping short at his hand now coddling the appendage.

Even from this distance I could see his eyes pricked with tears, it was impressive to say the least, to make a man like that cry.

I see Adam mention something to Jane who quickly takes his back as he turns on his heels to focus attention on Ace and David, making a quick circle-like motion with his arms to summon a yellow light at the two men’s feet, the circle rejuvenating the two, their cuts healing instantly leaving only blood.

David moves his hands and I see the shattered remnants of his horn. In between my own fighting I feel myself want to retch at the sight. The cartilage a stark, new white from the deep red of the exterior horn.

I can’t imagine the pain Adam stopped with that spell, I can only hope that injury is the worst one we encounter. And maybe that we can acquire some glue for him after all is said and done.

“Maybe I should stop playing fair.” The Entity whispers.

I turn to Jake who held the same look of befuddlement in between swings. My attention turns to myself however when claws bind me in place, forcing me to drop my dagger as my arms are bound behind me.

I fight against the restraints but soon see it was pointless, looking around to see the others having the same problem.

Adam was the only one with full mobility still, the other claws we had been fighting retracting into the floor below us, the Entity seemingly undamaged.

“Dragonborn, a beast of virtue and value.” The Entity introduces him, “Do you still feel virtuous after sleeping with the orc? You did take an oath of celibacy after all. Tell me dragonborn, was it worth the strife?”

“If I return to the overworld powerless you will be defeated, if I don’t return at all I still deserve a place at Bahamut’s side.” Adam enforces. “I am at peace with my actions.”

“Do you think it humourous to undo my will?” The whispers surround him, the dragon sinking a little lower into a guarded position, his holy icon firm in his hand.

“Did you think I would sit back and allow you to toy with my friends?” Adam says in a normal tone, the apparent shout echoing through the arena.

“Of course not, such is your nature. I only hoped you weren’t as powerful.” The Entity coos, claws sprouting from the floor to grab at Adam. “It saves me such trouble.”

Adam raises his symbol with his right hand, channelling with his left. One of the attacking claws withering on the spot.

Adam continues dodging and withering, although it becomes abundantly clear he was quickly losing his stamina. I didn’t blame him, dragonborns weren’t known for their evasive capabilities, and I doubt he could start tanking hits efficiently against this opponent.

“Bahamut reincarnates his clerics directly, you were born from Tiamat’s legacy.” The Entity exposes, “who are you lying to? You still rely on her grace as all of her children do.”

I look to my companions as Adam continues dancing with death, noticing something strange almost instantly.

On the floor at Meg’s feet lay her sword, the hilt of which was moving seemingly of its own accord. Meg’s expression read smug anticipation as everyone else ignores the spectacle.

I daren’t point it out, but I also notice the two axes at David’s feet, Jane’s short-sword and even my own dagger begin reverberating with the same power.

Interestingly, Claudette’s staff remained still as she struggled, as did Jake’s flail and Ace’s daggers.

I look to Jake who meet my eyes. Without saying anything I jerk my head to the weapons, he looks to them before meeting my eyes again, this time confused.

He then scans the room, his eyes meeting Ace’s who smiles with his trademark devilish charisma.

It suddenly dawned on me; Ace was making the weapons move. He was using the same magic he was using to lift wallets back in Ondskab, why wasn’t he just sending the weapons into the Entity right now? Adam had it occupied but not for much longer, his right shoulder plate had already been rocketed off his from the slightest hesitation, he couldn’t hold out for much longer.

“And what of the sorcerer woman you allowed to join you? You all knew the dangers, why bring her along?”

“We had no choice!” Adam calls back, now it became clear everyone had noticed what Ace was doing and we were all violently trying to buy him some time for whatever he had planned.

“She wanted to document the legends here to see if they rung true, all to appease her own mother.” The Entity explains, “such a sad woman, and you see her as an asset?”

It was at this moment I heard faint mumbling from Jake, faint enough that it wasn’t noticeable, and upon closer analysis he was not speaking in English rather the language of his home country.

It was bold to assume our omnipotent foe wasn’t able to hear him, but I want to believe Jake is taking all the precautions he realistically can.

“If you read our thoughts and feelings you surely know our bringing her along wasn’t consensual!” Adam rebuttals.

“Yet you are now here, knee deep in my severed extremities.” It taunts, “Your armour is shattered, and you’ve used too much magic. How long can you continue before you succumb to my will?”

“Long enough.” Adam spits.

I turn to the weapons now glowing with some sort of holy blue light, Jake’s whispers growing frantic as he finishes his prayers.

He grins, out of breath. He likely wasn’t pausing in between sermons, but now isn’t the time to worry about that.

Everyone halts in anticipation, waiting for Ace to perform his big trick. The weapons lift off the ground, flying past Adam and his clawed assailants to hit the Entity at its core.

I watch the Entity recoil as the weapons hit it, blue flame engulfing many of the remaining claws on the ground and the mass looming from whatever constitutes a sky.

Our restraints fall away, throwing us to the floor as we collect ourselves.

Jake picks up his flail, throwing the shield to me which I graciously catch, fastening it to my left forearm and looking around to my companions.

Ace had given Meg one of his two long knives, Jane was now resorting to full sleeves of magic and David had resorted to using his fists, although I don’t see him complaining.

“Out of all the banes mortal man creates, I never imagined clerical hymns to be my downfall.” The whisper turns to scraping moans. “I don’t wish for this humiliating death; I’ve entertained you far too long.”

“We’re finishing this, patron!” Jane yells, taking control of the surrounding flames and using her own magic to magnify them.

I hear Jake begin the prayer again, still in his own language. I watch him and Jane advance to Adam’s side to continue the cleanse.

I run over to Claudette and help her up from the floor. She brushes me off, wiping blood from a cut of her cheek and grabbing for her quarterstaff.

Meg and David had swapped places somewhere along the line, so now he was here with us whereas Meg was fighting at Ace’s back. It was only now I saw to full extent of his injuries: a well and truly shattered horn, blood on his cheek likely from the same attack that took out his horn.

“I will not allow you to destroy me, this defeat is shameful in itself.” The scraping gargles condemn us. “The death of my pride deserves one of you to die as well.”

The ground begins to rumble, a claw sprouting at Ace’s feet. It swipes at the back of his ankles, tripping him and making him fall onto the ground.

Meg twists the dagger around in her hand so she didn’t stab Ace helping him up. Unfortunately the Entity had gotten to him before she could, binding his own outstretched arm to his side so only his head could move.

“Release him!” Claudette commands, her cries falling on deaf ears.

“You have moments before death, rogue, make your peace.” The Entity instructs.

I feel the realm grow quiet, what once was a raging fire seemed to mute itself against Ace’s peril.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t talk for longer.” He turns to Meg, smiling paternally. “You all seem nice.”

It didn’t matter our focuses were directed at other events, what was important was we could hear Ace’s voice in the back of our minds, and on the front of our hearts.

“Even our cat?” Meg asks with a smile, tears pricking her eyes.

“Especially your cat.” He winks at Claudette.

I couldn’t even be protective of her like I usually was. He didn’t deserve that, not now at least.

“Wait, no stop!” I walk over to him in large strides making any effort to delay the inevitable.

One last claw shoots up from the ground, piercing Ace through his stomach forcing him to emit a grating cry.

I fall to my knees at his side, the floor around us turning to lush grass as I stare at the body in front of me.

Why did it have to end this way?


	9. Epilogue

The grass around my knees felt wet with blood, even though it was just the dew of the morning.

In front of me were the remains of Ace, lying face up in the short grass.

He didn’t seem peaceful. An abrupt death like that would shake anyone’s spirit.

All of us may as well be wearing black for the occasion, our grief emitting silent screams for the departed.

The fact it was over didn’t phase anyone, we were all completely unable to care whether we were safe or not.

Jake and Adam had started praying, their words fell on deaf ears as we were all focused on the body.

Part of me was waiting for him to open his eyes, clinging on to life still. Just enough life the healers would have something to work with, anything to work with.

We needed hope that wasn’t ever going to be given to us.

Claudette walks through the wet grass to stand at Ace’s head.

She lets her dress flow in the damp wind, water beginning to fall from the dark sky.

By now we would’ve conjured light in some form, but the action felt inappropriate somehow, the darkness was our doing.

I never thought I’d have to bury a father figure, much less Ace.

Claudette digs her fingers into the Earth, caving in the area near Ace making the body fall into its new grave.

She covers the pit with the displaced earth, rubbing the soil and watching flowers sprout in a trail from her palms.

We stare at the newly formed mound for a little while, rain wetting our clothing but we didn’t care.

We couldn’t care.

“How can we say we won?” Jane whispers.

It takes a while for us to process her words, focus lost on the situation.

“We didn’t.” Meg shakes her head, her tone as quiet as the sorcerer’s.

“If anything, we made things worse.” Jake hugs himself. “Now the Entity knows it can be defeated, it won’t toy with man again.”

We all nod, he has a good point. The patron made a mistake and we capitalised on that; it was unlikely to make the same mistake twice.

“It isn’ our problem n’more though, yeah?” David asks, bringing his hand up to the remnant of his right horn, a grim reminder.

“Not yours, at least.” I keep my legs crossed next to Ace’s grave. “Park, Thomas and Claude are coming with me to the War Hall to report.”

“All four of you?” Adam asks over the rain, the sky becoming louder with its rumbles.

I think for a moment before answering. “If any of you want me to tell them you’re dead, I will. I don’t have to mention Jane or David or—Ace.”

“We can’t offer them false information.” Claudette shakes her head.

“Why not? We never would’ve made it if it weren’t for Ace and Adam.” Jake argues, “It was suicide, they knew this.”

“They sent us because they wanted test subjects.” Meg agrees, “I want my damn pride back.”

“Damn orcs, all you think about is pride!” Jane bursts, her words bringing more silence. “What did we even go through? We just stared into hell and it stared back! Is no one going to address this?!”

The rain provided the most sound now, we were all thinking, but not about the past.

“I’m leaving.” Jane shakes her head, her tears silent yet her voice cracking.

She walks away from the site quickly, looking back only momentarily before picking up her pace.

“Is Kvan that direction?” Adam asks.

“I don’ think she cares.” David mumbles, “I wouldn’.”

“I’m going to the War Hall with you, Dwight. We have to report what we experienced.” Claudette sits next to me, taking my hand and placing her head on my shoulder.

“Megan, if you are going with them, allow me to come too.” Adam takes her hand with a smile.

“Why do you want to come to the War Hall with us?” She chuckles.

“Because you will be there!” He responds enthusiastically. “I won’t get in the way, I won’t talk unless spoken to, I—"

“—why?” Meg cuts him off.

“Because I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.” He answers with a stupid draconic grin, showing all manner of teeth used for tearing people limb from limb, but I like it.

It gives him charm.

“I’m not going to the War Hall.” Jake shakes his head, sitting down opposite me on the other side of the mound. “Thomas thinks she’ll get her pride back by facing them, I think I’ll keep mine by never seeing them again.”

“So where are you going instead?” Claude asks, “Back to Joseon?”

“No,” He laughs. “Maybe the Americas, far west. Maybe Qinga, maybe Australis and the islands above it.”

“I always wan’ed to see the far west.” David sighs. “’eard it’s warm this time a’ year.”

“Well, we can go there first.” Jake looks up at him with a smile.

“I’d like ‘at.” David helps him up.

“Will we see you two again?” I ask, happy for them yet sad for the circumstances.

“Maybe.” Jake shrugs. “You’re all going back to the Americas after the War Hall?”

“I suppose I am now.” Adam laughs.

“Well, then we’ll find you.” Jake punches him lightly in the shoulder.

“How?” I ask, not breaking the sentiment, yet challenging it none the less.

“Well, I better be able to call in a few favours from my own divine beneficiaries after that nonsense.” Adam laughs.

“Good luck then.” Meg nods sincerely.

“Until we meet again, I suppose.” I laugh, watching the two men walking down the hill and into the fog, the rain still soaking us.

“Are we going?” Claudette asks.

“I want to be with Ace a little longer.” I smile.

“Don’t we all?” She replies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus marks the end.
> 
> I am so grateful I could share such a story with you all, I'm proud of myself for finishing this and I'm proud that I've performed a first for this fandom. I've already started the first chapter of another story and I'm starting to write more of my long stagnant story 'Aftermath'.  
I'm drawing a wallpaper with the characters of this story, I'll post it as a bonus chapter so if you see the story updated it's because of that, the story is finished.  
Quickly: I completely forgot that half-elves like Ace and half-orcs like Meg are infertile, I gave Ace a family in Kvan Part 2, I just wanted to say before anyone calls me out on such a detail, I know, I know.
> 
> If you have any questions I'm constantly refreshing my inbox so feel free to comment.
> 
> I love all of you,
> 
> -Genna.


End file.
